


Mysteeri the Mysterious Cat

by Arika_the_Togepi



Series: Mysteeri [1]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Harry is turned into a cat, I know it's a cliche, M/M, my longest fic man
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-25
Updated: 2015-05-25
Packaged: 2018-04-01 02:42:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 36,185
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4002775
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Arika_the_Togepi/pseuds/Arika_the_Togepi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Harry hates his seventh year life. He goes to the Chamber of Secrets, to blow off steam. He takes a potion created by Slytherin to change his life. How does he react to being turned into a cat? What happens when Snape finds him and takes him in? It's a cliche you know how this ends >.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Mysteeri the Mysterious Cat

**Author's Note:**

> This had chapters but I'm reposting it without them mostly because I'm lazy. I've tried to clean up all the notes littered through it and whatnot but I might have done a terrible job so if I have please feel free to tell me.

No One POV:

"Locomotor Mortis!" Harry shouted at the ones following him. It wouldn't last very long but it would give him some time.

Then he ran, away from Hermione and Ron, away from the other Gryffindor's, away from their expectations. Voldemort was dead, Harry killed him; but his duties never left him – he never got the freedom that had been promised to him with Voldemort's death.

Harry wanted to run away completely, to never have to look at Ron and Hermione ever again. Leave the UK and go to France, or perhaps America; but when did Harry ever get what he wanted? Never is when!

When did what he wanted ever take a factor in anything? Look at any time during his life and see that he was always made to help someone else, always made to put them before himself; to be the hero. No one ever asked if wanted to be the hero – and if some one had, the answer would have been an immediate no.

Because being a hero is hard, and no one knows that better than Harry Potter.

The only place Harry could think to run to was the Chamber of Secrets; since Voldemort was dead he was now the only one who could get down there. The first time he went down in his seventh year he had stayed there for two full days, just thinking.

Harry loved it down there – with more books than all of Scotland in one little room. Not to mention that as Salazar Slytherin was a great Potions master there were many vials of potions for anyone to use.

He wasn't only running down there now to escape his 'friends', but he was running to escape his thoughts – he could very well understand why Snape loved brewing potions; as you have to focus so intently on them you have no time to think about anything else.

A blessing to those with a crap life (cough*Harry*cough). So that's specifically where Harry was headed today, the potions lab so that he could continue inspecting all the different potions. Some times Harry would leave for a day or so, when every think got just too much; but he never missed potions. Ever.

Potions had actually become much of his life; well, along with his three best friends, Seamus, Neville and Luna. Even though Seamus was almost always drunk, Neville was so shy and nervous even after his great spectacle in the last battle, and Luna seemed to know everything all the time – even if she wouldn't say it.

The potions allowed him to do away with expectations, red heads who think that he'll marry them, a certain Headmaster's plans to have him take Defense Against The Dark Arts position, and a Transfiguration teacher who thought he should learn to be an animagus.

He already knew what the animal was, said Transfiguration teacher had helped him find out – he was a kitten. A cute little black kitten no bigger than a foot long with midnight dark fur and his killing curse green eyes. This was something that put him off being an animagus.

After a frustratedly hissed, "Open," Harry was sliding down the darkened pipe into the chamber entrance. Harry loved the slide down - it was exciting, and thrilling. He was grateful that it was still not the kind of excitement and thrill that came with near-death experiences.

Passing the long snake corpse, Harry nodded his head to it, as he had done so many times before; honoring the death of a great snake. Walking up the small walkway that had towering stone pillars entwined with carved serpents rose to support a ceiling lost in darkness; casting long black shadows through the odd greenish gloom that filled the place.

Harry thought of the first time he was here, talking to the young Tom Riddle, worrying over Ginny Weasley's body. If he knew how much trouble and how annoying she would be later, he might not have saved her. But he shook his head roughly at the thought; no matter how much he hated her and her youngest brother, he couldn't do that to Mrs. and Mr, Weasley, or to Fred, George, Charlie and Bill. He would never forfeit another's life over something like that – it wasn't their fault that they annoyed him, right?

Okay, perhaps he was being to nice.

Harry didn't really give a damn about Percy, who had really just said, "Screw the family, I'm going to work with the Ministry!" Which was one of the reasons Harry wanted to become a teacher or Healer, he didn't want to have to get involved with politics and the Merlin damned Ministry; and every other job had at least something to do with them which Harry found ridiculous.

Besides, if he wanted to work in the Ministry, he was sure he could run for Minister and win; even at the age of eighteen- if he wanted to do it he could. Good thing for Scrigemour that he didn't want to.

He was also sure he could become headmaster of Hogwarts in a few years time, when Dumbledore died or retired, something he actually wouldn't mind. There were some things about Hogwarts that he felt should be changed, but on a whole it wasn't so bad.

For one, the prejudice against Slytherins, not all of them were evil. Many had been spies in the war for the Order or had stayed neutral, pulling out of the war completely. Right now though, he just wanted to focus on being Harry, not Harry Potter, and how to fix his life problems so his life didn't completely suck.

Even though no matter how many times he thought upon this subject he always came up without any ideas.

Harry, nearing the large head carved into the wall, hissed at Slytherin's face, "Open your mouth for me, great and all mighty Salazar Slytherin!"

There was a deep rumbling as the stone lips moved to create a small entrance way. The dark haired teenager used the Wingardium Leviosa spell to levitate himself up, going in without looking back at the now resealed entrance. As Harry stood in the living rooms, that he had cleared of dust, a very happy and relaxingly smile spread on to his face. Sometimes he would sit here and read for hours on end, only getting up to eat.

Yet he continued on, pass the kitchen that had a fridge spelled to have whatever you want inside it. Pass the library where Hermione would either have a heart attack or faint if she saw it – probably both. The idea made Harry chuckle to himself until he reached the door he wanted, the potions lab. Opening the door and walking with great drama, Harry pretended to be Snape, robes billowing about behind him.

Snape had retaken the position of Potion's Master after the end of the war, knowing that 'Potter' was expected to get the position of Defense Against the Dark Arts Position next year anyway. Harry didn't want to be a DADA teacher, he wanted to be the Hogwarts Healer after Madame Pomfrey- a healer that was well accomplished in Potions.

Honestly, he wouldn't mind taking Snape's position as Potion's Master either – but the man would probably not be leaving the school for some time; and Harry wasn't going to be that mean to the person who had saved his life numerous times.

To the empty room, having had Snape's speech memorized from that very first day he said, "You are here to learn the subtle science and exact art of potion making. As there is little foolish wand-waving here, many of you will hardly believe this is magic. I don't expect you will really understand the beauty of the softly simmering cauldron with it's shimmering fumes, the delicate power of liquids that creep through humans veins, bewitching the mind, ensnaring the senses... I can teach you how to bottle fame, brew glory, even stopper death- if you aren't as big a bunch of dunderheads as I usually have to teach." Harry finished with a great impression of Snape, in all his bastardly glory.

Then Harry had to sit down as he smirked to himself. How he loved making fun of the teachers; not only Snape too, sometimes he walked in here and pretended to be tight lipped McGonagall, or cheery Dumbledore with his lemon drops. But whenever he did that, he had trouble not breaking out into a fit of giggles which completely ruined the feeling.

Harry looked around the room. It was a standard size, the same size of most of the classrooms at Hogwarts, but without all the tables and chairs and there was no black board. One main table stood alone in the middle of the room, cutting boards and knives hanging up on the stone walls. There were large shelves that hung above a counter filled with every ingredient you could ever need; both legal and illegal.

In a supply cupboard held all different sizes of cauldrons; made out of all different materials, from gold to silver to platinum. Only a few of them were standard pewter and black; Salazar wouldn't have used them for but the simplest of potions. Harry didn't really feel like brewing today, he just wanted to look at the other potions Salazar Slytherin had already made for other's uses.

On the left side of the room, opposite the supply closet, counters and shelves was a door that led to a storage room. All different kinds of potions were there, legal, illegal, dangerous, and simple. They were every different color too, a green one that changed eye color, a blue one that gave the drinker gills for an hour, a red one that replenished blood, a silver one that told you your patronus animal, and a black one that was one of the worlds strongest poisons and would kill you instantly if your tongue had but one drop on it.

Thank Merlin Voldemort hadn't gotten his hands on that when he was at Hogwarts.

Harry had used a few of them – one to correct his vision, another to grow out his hair so it kept out of his face. One allowed him to talk to spiders; which he used to get said spiders to freak out Ron. Harry was trying to create a catalogue of all the potions, names, colors, functions, and warnings; so far he had only finished one wall, two more to go!

After a few minutes (or maybe it was twenty, Harry could never keep track), he came across one called 'Elämän Muuttaminen Potion'. The name was strange to Harry, as most of the potions were named after what they were used for, the color, or the person that made them; and Harry shouldn't think of a potion's master who's name was 'Elämän Muuttaminen'. There were directions to use it in a different language, which was probably why he didn't understand the name. Here's what the instruction's read:

Elämän Muuttaminen Potion: Ensin toteutettava potion reaktiopulloon ja sijoittaa yhtenäisen hiukset. Odota potion silmäsi värin muuttaminen. Kun se on tehty, otettava potion. Hiukset sallii potion voidaan ottaa riippumatta tarvitset, niin se muuttuu juuri sitä; riippumatta tarvitset. Ottamalla se onneaan on lisääntynyt; mutta se on eri kuin Felix Felcis, koska että vain tekee olet onnekas, tämä potion on valta muuttaa elämäsi ja antaa sinulle, mitä sinun on eniten. Se antaa oman sydän eniten toiveen, että kuolema ei sisällä.

Harry ran his wand over it to translate it onto another piece of parchment; the potion intrigued Harry- the only other potions he had seen in other languages had been in Parsletongue, which he was certain was not the language. After a few minutes, Harry read the in-English translation on a newer piece of parchment than had been set with the potion. It read:

Life Changing Potion: First, take the potion vial and put in a single hair. Wait for the potion to change to the color of your eyes. When it is done, take the potion. Your hair allows the potion to take in whatever you need, so it changes to just that; whatever you need. By taking it, your luck has increased; but it is different than the Felix Felcis because that only makes you lucky, this potion has the power to change your life and give you what you need the most. It gives you your heart's greatest desire that does not include death.

Now it piqued his interest even more, a potion that gave you your heart's greatest desire? It was to good to be true, and, thinking of the Mirror of Erised, he realized it was indeed to good; his greatest desire was to have his parents back – and the potion didn't deal in death.

Still, it would give him his next greatest desire which was unknown to him; and his life did need to start looking up. So, writing down everything on his catalogue, he dropped one hair into the vial. It turned the Avada Kedavra green quickly, which was when Harry drank it.

He didn't feel any different, and looked down at himself; didn't look any different. He had thought that his next desire was to not be so popular with the paparazzi, and not to be as famous, too be not so noticeable. Maybe it took a few days to come into full effect? The paper didn't say anything about that, or any side effects that might happen.

The raven haired wizard was starting to think that he had been a bit foolish, a bit Gryffindor to just take the potion, without thinking of the consequences. But there was nothing he could do now, nothing but wait for whatever was going to happen to happen.

He slipped the potion vial into his cloak pocket with his wand, making a mental note to ask Snape if he would look at it for him. Or if not, too come back down to the Chambers and see if he could find out by himself. Right now, he wanted to get out into public so if the potion did something bad to him he wouldn't be alone.

Luna always seemed to find him when he was in trouble, but even if she somehow knew he was down here she would never be able to get in. Quickly, Harry almost ran to the stairs that led out of the Chambers, an uneasy feeling growing in the pit of his stomach. The stairs resembled Dumbledore's, but instead of a Phoenix there was a Basilisk taking him up out of the stone rooms.

It would be preposterous to think that Salazar Slytherin would use a Phoenix on his staircase.

Harry was now in a small room that did not to appear to exist on the other side of the door, you couldn't even see the door unless someone was inside; and when Harry was inside it just looked like a broom closet, and, as usual, Harry waited for the moving staircase to disappear.

Taking a look around him at the cleaning supplies that looked used though were never actually touched, Harry fiddled with the potion vial in his pocket. Maybe he should get Snape to check it for him sooner rather than later. Though that would be a rather difficult explaining session.

The moment he took a step out of the door, there was a flash of black light and the door slammed behind him. His cloak fell off his shoulders as his last thought was, "Luna...", praying Luna would find him as she normally did.

He didn't know that Luna was a seer, or he did, but subconsciously, deep down he realized why she knew these things that she did. There are of course many things that we know in our subconscious that we don't know and understand in our conscious – who we love often being one of them.

Consequently, he didn't know that the Ravenclaw knew what was happening to him, having been keeping a special tab on him lately sensing something important was going to happen. He didn't know what she did – that what was happening might have some twists and turns and bad things to go with it, but would, in the end, help him and give him his utmost desire – what he wanted even more than his parents to be alive.

Love.

Chapter 2: Mrs Norris

~*~ No One/Harry-ish POV ~*~

Harry woke up surrounded in heavy, dark fabric, that permitted little light to see by. Finding that his eyes had already adjusted to what dim light was coming through the heavy folds, Harry could see nothing around him.

He had a momentary panic attack as to where he was, and what was on him. He felt ridiculously small; and the increasing heat levels in the small space he occupied was not helping his panic at all. But a voice in the back of his mind (one that sounded suspiciously like Moody) told him to quit panicking and think.

So Harry did think. The first thing he thought of was himself; wherever he was, he needed to make sure he had all his body parts, no bruises etc. Maybe It was because of his near panic attack, or he just wasn't paying close attention today; yet he would never forget that small heart attack just then.

Harry, looking down at himself, saw a cat. A black cat, with fur as dark as midnight and bright green eyes (though he couldn't see them) that suggested he was more than just a common house hold cat. Yet Harry realised he was looking down at himself; that somehow, some way, he had been forced into a cat's- not even that, a kitten's!- body. 'It was probably that stupid bloody potion. I knew I shouldn't have taken it.'

He wanted to berate himself for drinking the potion, but really he was angry at himself for another reason; how the hell did he not notice he was a cat? He had four legs, two cat ears; that were constantly moving, annoying him to no ends; he even had a tail for crying out loud, and still he hadn't realised until he stopped panicking. 'I guess that goes to show how distracted one can become.'

The next step Harry could think of for survival, was find out where you are. Harry obviously couldn't do that when trapped where he was, so he looked to the next step; finding a way out. Harry closed his eerily observant cat eyes, and pushed forward- he was surrounded by only fabric after all, surely he could get through it without being hindered too much?

He soon found out that he was wrong; whatever kind of fabric it was, it was heavy. There was a smell on the fabric that rang a few bells in his head; and when he bumped into something that resembled a pocket far too much not to be one, Harry had almost realised where he was. After rummaging around in said pocket, Harry's suspicions were found true; there was a wand in the pocket- and it was as long as he was!

Harry knew now where he was, when he was morphed into a cat, his clothes had morphed with him. But for whatever reason, his cloak had not. So he had woken up inside the folds of his black school cloak. Which did make Harry relax a little bit, at least he knew where he was; no doubt Hogwarts, near the Great Hall where Slytherin's secret back door lead out to.

Continuing in his efforts to force his way out of the cloak, Harry the ever daring Gryffindor, decided to think like a Slytherin. And really, what harm would it do? Inside the castle as a human had been bad enough, what with Malfoy and his gang picking on him, being the boy-who-lived etc.; but to be a cat and have to face those students (granted, they didn't know who he was), not to even mention Mrs. Norris.

That cat was highly territorial, and she never liked him as a human, she most definitely would not like him as a cat; more than likely she would try to shred him apart without even realising who he was.

Shaking his head, Harry got back to the task at hand. Right, he needed to escape his cloak- which had been almost small on him before, and now seemed like wearing Hagrid's clothing- and find a way to contact somebody who would recognise who he was. Neville, or Luna maybe; Seamus probably wouldn't recognise him, but he would take him to his friends, which would get him to Luna who, for all of her abilities, would at least notice his eyes.

Harry, instead of trying to push his way out of the cloak, tried to get around it. Untangle himself from it and then try to find a way out; it was not unlike having your legs caught up in the blankets when you awoke. You had to carefully see how everything was, and unfold them, untangle them, before simply slipping off the cloth. A little while into it, Harry slipped and fell against a button, that felt very hard hitting his back, and he let out a sharp cry.

The thought occurred to him, that someone else might come along and help him; or that their might be someone watching him now, with an amused smirk (yes Harry pictured a Slytherin doing this) on his or her face. Harry hoped that wasn't true, who knew what Slytherins did to small animals kittens like himself in particular? Harry shuddered at the thought, hoping that no one was there, and that his suspicions of Slytherins were not at all near the truth.

He soon found out that his hopes had been answered; at least, no one was standing there. When Harry's head first popped out of the mess of fabric he was once stuck in, the first thing he did was suck in a great deal of fresh air (stick your whole body under a blanket, stay for a few minutes, then come out from underneath it and you'll understand what he was feeling).

Quickly jumping out of the little hole his head had created, Harry looked at the robes with a glare; it was probably the cat-side of him making itself known, but he hated the robes for trapping him. He decided that he didn't like being trapped in a small area; though he wouldn't go so far to call it claustrophobia- not yet at least.

Harry wanted to take his wand with him, but decided against it. He would more than likely lose it in Hogwarts having to lug it around; at least here he knew where it was. He also did not feel like diving back into his robes, so he let it go. Turning away from his clothes that had once fit him, Harry began walking towards the Great Hall, thinking that he would most likely find Luna there; and if she wasn't, then he could just wait for her to show up in the morning.

No need for him to tucker out his little cat body any more than needed, after all he wasn't use to it and was slightly off balance as he attempted walking. His ears swivelled backwards, there was something behind him; and it was making a terrible scratching noise. There was no way it could be a student or teacher, they were far too big and clumsy for him to have not heard a mile off; Harry knew that cats had great senses, hearing especially. So there were little other options, one being it was a students' pet that had escaped. This is what he hoped it was.

Turning around, Harry saw the familiar old face of Mrs. Norris glaring at him, her stance ready to pounce. Harry did the only thing that seemed to make sense at the time; there was no way he could fight Mrs. Norris, she was so much bigger than him. Nope, instead of doing the brave, reckless, and plain stupid Gryffindor thing, Harry opted for taking the safer, slightly more cowardly, and smarter way: the Slytherin way.

In other words he ran.

He ran right past Mrs. Norris, not wanting to take the time to turn around when she was already ready to jump on him and fight. She followed closely after him, and he looked back a few times over his shoulder; she was gaining.

He thought of a way to throw her off the trail; stun her, for at least a few seconds. Making up his mind, Harry stopped abruptly, turning swiftly and running towards Mrs. Norris. She skidded to a stop, obviously not prepared for this. Leaving her in a daze, he turned once more, to run again.

Now Harry had not been paying any attention to his surroundings, nor where he was going except for 'Away from the crazy, lethal cat.'; and he had taken that exact brief second to look back at Mrs. Norris, to see her getting to her paws to follow him. Consequently, he didn't see the person, nor the legs, until he knocked into them.

Chapter 3: Mysteeri

~*~ No-one/Severus-ish POV ~*~

Severus Snape did not shock easily, if ever at all, and when he did not only go into shock, but to show it as well, he must be very and truly shocked. Which is why he had to blink a few times in confusion after having a small cat slam into his legs; though that really didn't make any sense - he had seen the cat running from Mrs. Norris before. It was most likely the move he had seen it do and was surprised that it had worked.

Severus had been walking down the rather long corridor from to the Great Hall, to his quarters; and on his way he saw said small cat running, glancing over its shoulder a few times. Severus was going to help the cat (yes he did have a heart, buried deep under all of his Slytherin) and try to find the owner. He had to first wonder what it was running away from however.

Seeing the older cat come into the picture, obviously chasing the first, Severus understood perfectly. Some idiotic (probably Gryffindor or first year) let his cat out; and now here it was, being chased by old temperamental Mrs. Norris. Severus was froze to the spot as the young kitten did something so very weird for a cat... Un-cat-like... Something so very human for a cat to do; which, he later cursed himself for not noticing.

The kitten, without stopping, turned around and ran straight past Mrs. Norris, leaving a very confused cat in its wake. Just as swiftly and agile as before, the unknown kitten turned back around and came running towards him. Though it was obvious the cat didn't know he was there.

So Severus saw the kitten coming, and should have bent down to pick it up, or stepped out of the way at the very least; yet for some reason he could not stop staring at the incident before him- well, that is until a black ball of fur hit him in the legs.

~*~ No-one/Harry-ish POV ~*~

Harry was surprised when Severus Snape of all people picked him up off the floor; after getting over the shock of crashing head-first into his legs of course, but at that point he was just happy to get away from Mrs. Norris.

Snape kicked the older cat away and held him carefully, something Harry was grateful for – though he didn't understand why Snape was being nice to him. Even if he didn't realize that he was holding his most hated student, why was he being nice to a little kitten? Unless...Who would have thought, Snape a cat person?

"What are you doing being chased by her? She'll shred you to pieces if she catches you." Harry gave the man a look that said, 'Does it look like I asked her to chase me around?'

"Well you should have stayed with whoever your owner is. I know for a fact that it isn't one of the Slytherins, not many of them have pets and those that do prefer owls to cats. So what to do with you?"

As he was talking he had started walking down the hall to the dungeons, where he had been headed. Harry felt a vibration start going through his body as a hand started to rub his back. After a few seconds he realised that the vibrations were him purring! He wanted to stop purring, especially as it was Snape petting him, but he found that he couldn't. The hand was so big and warm and it felt so nice.

It didn't take long for Snape to walk to a door near the end of the hallway, the one that Harry guessed opened to his personal quarters. Looking around Snape, as the man said the password that Harry didn't bother paying attention to, Harry made a note that humans could walk a lot faster than kittens. As soon as he thought this he instantly berated himself for thinking something so stupid; of course humans walked faster! Merlin he was so so simple-headed sometimes.

The portrait swung open and Snape walked in, placing him on the floor. "Okay, so these are my rooms. I'm going to keep you in here until I can work out who your owner is. You must be starving, so I'll go get you some food." Snape walked away to supposedly call a house-elf for food. Though there was a fridge in a miniature kitchen with a dining table that kept only one chair around it.

Waiting for him to leave, Harry looked around the room. It wasn't necessarily big, at least not to a human, but for a kitten everything was giant sized. To the right was the kitchen, to the left was a sofa, an arm chair, and a coffee table all arranged in front of a slowly burning fireplace.

Harry expected the furnishings to all be black or dark brown, possibly green; instead he found that they were all a pale blue, the bushy carpet under his feet was, however, Slytherin green. The table in the kitchen was made of oak, and the fireplace made of brick. There were no windows, not that Harry had expected any.

Snape came back in levitating a bowl of milk for Harry. He set it on the floor and Harry stared at it with disdain. Mewing loudly, he tried to get across, 'You expect me to want that?'

Snape saw this look and said, "Are you not hungry? Most cats like to drink milk – Minerva wouldn't be quiet about it a few days ago. If you don't want any then I can get rid of it."

As he was reaching down to pick up the bowl (having already cast a non-spilling charm on it), Harry took a few steps up to it and stuck his tongue into it. Surprised to find that it actually did taste good, he kept licking it up; happy and confused to find that Snape had even cast what must have been a warming charm on it because it was lukewarm.

Snape watched with a smirk on his face as the kitten found an interest in the milk that he had first stuck his little cat nose up at. Snape tried to think of a name for the little kitten.

"What should I call you?" Snape asked as Harry ignored him. "From what I can tell you're a boy... How about Cameron?" Harry gave a small shake of the head without stopping his drinking of the milk, because it was really good!

"No, I guess not..." Snape continued. "Maybe Braedon?" Another shake of Harry's small furry head made Snape start to wonder if the cat could understand him as truly as a human could.

"You know," Snape muttered as Harry looked up at him to keep talking, "I think I'll call you Mysteeri. It means Mystery once translated, and you are one since I have absolutely no idea where you came from." Harry just shrugged (or shrugged as much as a cat can) and turned back to the milk, which was quickly depleting. After taking the very last drop, he looked up to Snape to refill it.  
"No, I don't think so. You're a very small thing and if I feed you too much you could get chubby. Do you want to be chubby?" Snape asked, not really expecting an answer. Harry narrowed his eyes at Snape in thought as he wondered if getting fat as a cat would make him fat as a human too. Deciding it probably would he shook his head before walking away from the bowl and around the room.

"Okay, now that you've eaten, and I've named you, it's time for bed. Where do you want to sleep Mysteeri?" Snape asked not really caring where the cat slept as long as it wasn't on him.

Harry looked around for a little bit and then decided to follow Snape as he walked into the Master Bedroom (there was a guest one around there somewhere, each teacher had one, Harry knew). Looking around, Harry decided he would try to sleep on the pillow next to his Potions Master; hoping that he wasn't the type to thrash and move about during sleep.

Harry saw Snape getting undressed and tried to discreetly look away; because he didn't want to see his Professor naked, but cats wouldn't normally have these thoughts, and he didn't really want Snape to find out that he was Harry Potter. Not yet, anyway.

Unknown to Harry Snape did see and added it to the list of humanic things that he had seen Mysteeri do. He chalked it up to the fact that he must have had a very strong wizarding owner of some sort, that must have taught him to act human-like. After getting changed Snape slid into the bed under the black blankets on the opposite side of Mysteeri.

Harry was thinking, 'Tonight I won't sabotage him or hurt him while he sleeps or anything like that. He did feed me and treated me okay. But tomorrow, tomorrow I'm going to act like hell!'

~*~ Sleepy Time ~*~

Chapter 4: Pranking Disaster

~*~ No One/Harry-ish POV ~*~

Harry woke up with the feeling of an all encompassing warmth surrounding him. He also had the feeling that he was lying on top of a moving pillow that kept going up and down, and up and down, and up and down. Harry yawned before opening his eyes; trying to remember all of his very strange dream that he was going to tell Luna and Seamus all about. That he was turned into a kitten and Snape found him and took him in! What a good laugh! Like any of that could actually happen let alone-

That train of thought was interrupted as Harry opened his eyes and found that it had all been true. He really was in the shape of a baby cat and his moving pillow happened to be smirking down at him with one eyebrow raised.

It took only a few seconds for Harry to realise that he must have moved during the night to end up on Snape's chest, and he couldn't help but wonder which part of his subconscious mind thought that it would be a good idea to do so. Whichever part it was extremely creeped him out, so he tried to ignore it by jumping off of the chest and onto the bed.

Snape, now unobstructed by a cat sitting on top of him, stood up and stretched his arms. "I was wondering if you were every going to get off of me or if I was going to have to push you off of me and rudely wake you up." The idea of him doing this to Harry made Harry's blood boil, and he gave Snape the meanest look he could muster considering he was a cat.

"Yes okay I know it would be a mean thing to do, you can stop glaring at me. You know, for a kitten, you sure have a little temper don't you?" Harry didn't stop glaring at the man until said man left the room to go and take a shower.

Harry was about to jump off of the bed when he realised how high it was off the ground and decided that he would just wait for Snape to come back. He came back wearing only a towel around his hips. Harry was napping, and so didn't see this.

Snape swiftly got changed into his teaching robes that he wore all time at Hogwarts, and he woke the cat up by poking it in the stomach. Harry, not liking that he did this, acted on reflex and snapped his eyes open, hissing and reaching an unsheathed paw out to scratch his finger while narrowly missing.

Harry did not like being woken up so rudely and decided that today we would be the day that he would cause such utter mayhem that Snape would have to be wondering, how such a small cat could do such things.

'Today is a Saturday,' Harry thought, 'so no one, save Luna, should realise that I am missing for another two days. Snape shouldn't be able to realise that I am me for at least that long.' Harry's plan was to cause hell for Snape and then look for a way out, and probably go to McGonagall and see if she knew a way to Transfigure him back into his old self. If all went to plan then Snape would never even find out that his cat was also Harry Potter.

Snape picked Harry up, and didn't put him back down until they were in the kitchen, and only under the table. Snape snapped his fingers and a house-elf appeared, asking, "What is it that Mister Snape is needing?"

"I need an un-spillable bowl, filled with warmish milk for my cat here." The elf took a moment to listen to his request before popping away.

"I have to go and see Madame Pomfrey about some potions she needs for the infirmary, so you're going to stay here, drink your milk, and not get intoanything." Snape said to Harry on his way to the door leading out of the quarters. Harry cocked his head as if the idea of him doing something wrong was preposterous to himself.

A few moments after he disappeared the elf popped back into the room and laid the bowl on the ground taking one moment to fuss over him (the elf was a girl – at least Harry thought so), she too left him alone.

For the first few minutes Harry just quietly drank from the bowl, being surprisingly hungry; as he took note that Snape hadn't had breakfast at all. Now that Harry thought about it, whenever Harry looked over at him during meal times in the Great Hall (which definitely wasn't often), he never seemed to have much on his plate or to be eating. He only ever really glared at the students, and occasionally had conversations with the teachers on either side of him.

When he was satisfied that he no longer was hungry – after about two-thirds of the bowl was empty – Harry sat back on his haunches and gazed around him to decided where to start first.

He thought, 'Now let the fun begin.'

Spotting the fireplace unlit, he padded over to see if it had remained unlit the whole night. Carefully sticking out a paw into the remaining ashes, Harry found that they weren't very hot; not even all that warm.

Harry closed his eyes and mouth for a moment, and jumped into the ashes. Not looking around until he was sure all of the soot had settled so as to not get any in his eyes, Harry could see that it was hard to tell he had ash in his fur at all; the only give away was that it now shined in the light where particles of the silvery stuff clung to him.

Hopping back out of the fireplace, Harry started walking around the room getting little ashy paw prints everywhere. Smirking in his head, Harry continuously walked through the pile of ash that had spilled out of the fireplace when he went in to it, to replace what he'd spread about the floor; he also rubbed up against the furniture and bookshelves to get the powdery substance off his flanks and face.

After there was a large amount of sooty tracks on the ground, Harry jumped up onto the sofa to see that Snape had placed a box onto the table earlier when he wasn't looking. Or perhaps he just hadn't seen it before; the table was quite high up and from his vantage point of about a foot off the ground it was hard to see all the way up there.

Slipping delicately off the sofa and landing on his feet (as cats always do), Harry trodded over to the single chair at the head of the table; still leaving tracks behind showing where he had come from and all over the sofa.

Carefully aiming to where he wanted to go, Harry set his sights on the seat of the chair. Counting down from three in his head, Harry sprung up and stuck out his paws to grip the chair, claws unsheathed to get an even better grip. While gauging scratches in the chair, Harry stepped onto the edge, easily pulling himself up onto the side of the table that wasn't as far a distance from the seat of the chair as the floor had been.

Once onto the table Harry had to find a way to get into the box, or to tip it over. Luckily for him, there was a small piece of cloth dangling from the edge of the box that seemed to be some sort of tie. It had green and silver stripes as a pattern and Harry could make a very good guess on what it might be.

Yet as he came towards it, Harry couldn't fight an instinct of his to bat at the tie with his paw. Doing so only made him more interested in batting at it, as now it was a swaying, moving target. For a good few minutes Harry kept hitting the tie in a way that he thought cats only did in books (having Crookshanks be the only cat that he had been around a lot, and never seeing him do anything like playing with a string).

Each time he hit the cloth it would slip down a little bit, as if he was pulling it down from the box. Eventually, he realised that he actually was pulling on the tie with each swipe and it just fell on top of him; as the part of it on the outside of the box became heavier than that of the cloth on the inside.  
Untangling himself from the green and silver object, Harry saw that his guess was indeed correct: it was Snape's old Slytherin tie from when he used to go to school. Harry wondered why Snape had kept it all of these years since sentimentality was meant to be a Hufflepuff and Gryffindor trait, not Slytherin.

Realising the box probably had other strange knick-knacks from Snape's teenage years made Harry only want to look into it even more than he had before. Carefully, so as to not to tip the box over completely, Harry stood on his back legs and placed his front paws onto the edge.

However his carefulness was not rewarded and the box came tumbling down on top of him, blocking out the light in the room. As the box tumbled, he could feel the unknown objects inside the box, some soft and blunt, some hard and sharp, hitting him in the back or hitting the table around him.

After only a few seconds Harry was worried he might start hyperventilating, and decided that he was ready to call it claustrophobia. Recalling something he had heard while sneakily watching one of Dudley's old movies, he knew that hyperventilating would only make him light headed and use up what oxygen was in the area that the box covered.

Not moving so as to not need as much oxygen, Harry crouched on top of the table and under the box for he didn't know how long, waiting for Snape to get back from - where was he going? From going to see Madame Pomfrey. Before he had wanted Snape to take a long time so that he could cause a ton of disaster, now he wanted him to get back as soon as possible so he didn't die of suffocation.

Chapter 5: Punishments And Potions

~*~ No-One/ Severus-ish POV ~*~

Severus was slightly worried as he left his personal quarters to go and talk to Madame Pomfrey. He didn't exactly want to leave a kitten alone in his rooms, especially one that he had just met – because he didn't know if it was a very mischievous kitten or not. He knew of mischievous cats, had met some before; but he hoped that Mysteeri wasn't like that. Even if Mysteeri did try to do something bad, what could he possibly do? He was such a tiny thing, certainly he couldn't cause too much trouble, right?

As he walked to the infirmary Severus thought about how Mysteeri had appeared out of nowhere – and was truly a mystery to him. He knew nothing of the cat but that he hadn't liked milk, until he tried it and found that he liked it, that is. What kind of cat hasn't tried milk? He really wasn't kidding when he told Mysteeri about Minerva chatting non-stop to his non-listening ear about how much her new born kittens loved milk.

Wait... Newborn kittens, perhaps Mysteeri was one of Minerva's new kittens? Probably not though. From what Severus could remember newborn kits had to be fed every two hours, and didn't walk around very much. His cat acted like a full grown cat, it was only his size that made Severus question if he really was that old.

Once he arrived at the infirmary, Severus opened the doors and strided purposefully to Poppy's office. There were no sick students at the moment, so it seemed she had time to spend. For the next hour or so Severus had to listen to her talk about which potions she needed, which wouldn't have lasted so long if the matron hadn't had to explain what and who she used each potion for.

Severus didn't really care, and since it didn't change how he was going to make the potions at all (unless one of the students had an allergy to one of the ingredients, which was rare), he didn't need to care nor know.

As soon as she was finished with her lengthy explanation, Severus left the infirmary with a list of all of the potions he had to brew for her. He wished that Albus hadn't lassoed him into this teaching job, for Severus hated teaching snot-nosed dunderheads each year. The only reason he was still here was because he felt like he owed Albus for saving his life. He hated life debts.

And, speaking of life-debts, he also hated that he owed one to his supposedly most-hated student, Harry Potter. Yes, he owed the brat a life debt, as on the day of the final battle; after Voldemort and his snake were gone, Potter had burst into the room. He held a strong anti-venom that had been used on the Weasley-Father after he'd been attacked by the horror in the brat's fifth year.

Don't ask Severus why the child was carrying around the venom, as if he suspected that he or someone else would be attacked by the snake; or was believing that he would have to fight it; but he was grateful that Potter had been – otherwise he'd be dead.

Yet now he owed the child a life debt; as if owing the father of the child one wasn't enough. It seemed as if fate had decided that he would forever be indebted to the Potter's until his very last breath. Unless he could find a way to repay them both which would be extremely hard since now-a-days, as there was nothing and no one that wanted to harm a hair on the boy-who-lives head. Wasn't that just a miracle?

Though even Severus had to – grudgingly, of course – admit that the boy had been, somehow, getting better at Potions this year; and was now better than he had been in any of his previous years of wizardry.

Making it back down to the dungeons, Severus stood in front of the door and muttered the password, "Belladonna and phoenix tears." watching the door swing open.

Stepping inside he gaped at the sight before him. His rooms were in a complete disaster! The floor was covered in silver-gray paw prints that must have been ash because there was a large pile of it beside the fireplace.

It was all over his carpet, the sofa, the bookshelf, smeared across the walls even! On the table his tie was hanging over the edge, and the box of his old school things had been tipped over. He was relieved to see that the doors to his bedroom, bathroom and personal lab were closed; so he knew the mess was only in here.

About to call a house-elf to clean everything up, he started to wonder where the culprit had gone off too. Without needing to look at the seemingly carefully laid prints all over the floor, Severus could tell you who had done it all. There was only one animal in his room when he left, so there was only one thing that could have done this.

He started over towards the over-turned box on the table, and heard a very soft mewling sound coming from inside, having one name on the tip of his tongue.

Mysteeri

~*~ POV-ish Change ~*~

Harry was still under the box trying not to breathe too hard when he heard the door to the rooms open. He knew it could be only one person, and so he started mewling pitifully. Maybe if he acted innocent and cute and cuddly Snape would forgive him?

Snape, seemingly gently, picked up the box and Harry took in a gulp of fresh air (yes, he hated confined spaces now), Harry took one look at his face and knew that that plan wasn't an option. The older wizard had a very angry look on his face and Harry didn't think acting all cutesy and innocent would fool him. The prints were, most obviously, his own; and knowing Snape as well as he did (which wasn't well mind you), it would probably only make him angrier.

Snape roughly grabbed him by the skin and fur of his neck and held him in front of his face. "Give me one good reason as to why I shouldn't just throw you out right now and tell you to begone."

Harry, not being able to talk, could only stare right back at Snape as the man probably decided if he was going to kill him or not. While staring into Snape's eyes, Harry saw that what actually looked like smouldering coal from even a few feet away, his eyes were actually just a very dark brown.

You could only see the brown if you looked at the outer rim away from the pupil, where there was a very faint rim of brown in his eyes. Harry added this fact to 'The Things Learned During This Trip Into Snape's Personal Quarters'. He could come up with a better name for it later.

Snape raised his wand and pointed it at Harry without hesitation, and Harry closed his eyes expecting to see a green light, or at least a red one. Instead, Harry felt a rough air going across his fur, cleaning out all of the ash and dust that he had picked up from his trip into the fireplace. Opening one green eye cautiously, before plucking up the courage to open the other one, Harry, once again, stared at Snape.

"I don't think I can hurt you. At least, I don't want to. You remind me too much of one of my students and I just-... Well, that doesn't really matter. I'm not going to kill you. But if you do this again I might just; no matter what I feel about the way you look and who you remind me of in consequence."

Snape plunked Harry back down onto the table and snapped his fingers for a house-elf, that screeched as it saw the mess. Harry didn't hear the exact orders because he was too busy thinking over what Snape had said.

Did that mean that Snape didn't want to kill him because he looked like... who? Another student? Possibly himself? Could Snape really tell, even subconsciously, that he was actually Harry Potter in cat form?

Shaking his head at his thoughts as a hand picked him up, once again, he heard Snape say, "Now, I need to go and brew some potions; and I am taking you with me so hopefully you don't destroy anything. It is extremely important you don't pull another stunt like that in the potions lab, because it could cause an explosion – or anything really. The Number One rule about Potions is, don't try to tamper with the recipe unprofessionally."

And with that he deposited Harry onto the floor, after walking into and closing the door to the Potions Lab. Harry looked around in amazement- the place looked almost exactly like Salazar's. This made Harry wonder if all Personal Labs were built this way; and decided he wanted to find out as soon as he became human again.

Anyway, there was one large table in the middle of the room, around most of the walls were counters and hanging from the walls were cupboards; which, Harry guessed held vials and ladles and all the other small equipment for Potions making.

In the bottom cupboards, under the counter, was where the cauldrons were kept. Harry knew because he saw Snape get one out from underneath. There wasn't as large of a selection as Salazar's, but it was still quite impressive.

Snape brought a list out of his pocket and set it on the table; after getting out the cauldron and placing it over the small fire. Harry desperately wanted to get up onto the table, but it was so high that there was no way he should even attempt jumping up, it would just look stupid as it was obviously to far up.

Before starting the potion Snape placed all of the ingredients out on one of the counter tops; the one that was nearest to the table. But still, each time Snape needed something, he would have to go around the table to get to the counter. Harry pawed at his legs while he was at the counter until he finally realised what Harry wanted and lifted him up onto the counter with the ingredients.

"Don't eat anything – for your own good. Who knows what would happen to you if you ingest some of these things." Snape told him, watching him carefully.

Harry nodded his agreement to the statement, not planning on eating any of the non-delectable looking items assorted in front of him.

Harry began to realise that every time Snape needed an ingredient he would mutter the name and then go and get it. Wanting to help Snape in some way make the potion (though really he just wanted something to do) Harry waited for Snape to mutter what he needed before going and getting it from the selection on the counter and taking it back to Snape at the table. All he had to do was jump from one flat platform to the other flat platform, careful to not touch any of the other ingredients or knock over the cauldron.

At first Snape was a little sketchy about him doing this, and looked unsure if he was trying to sabotage the potion or not. But seeing that Harry was only bringing him the ingredients he needed when he said he needed them, he didn't find anything wrong with it.

The duo continued on like that for the rest of the potions that Snape was making, breaking it only to change ingredients when starting a new potion. Severus realised he had finally found a good potions partner (despite the fact he was a cat). And Harry realised that, for the first time since the final battle, he felt completely relaxed and happy.

Chapter 6: Bathing

~*~ Potions Break ~*~  
~~*~~ Also POV Change ~~*~~

Later, after the potions were done and the house-elves were finished cleaning up the mess that Harry made, Severus had decided it was time for dinner and then bed. He also planned to give Mysteeri a bath, but he didn't plan on telling Mysteeri that.

Calling another house-elf to get himself some Italian-ish Soup and Mysteeri some meat chunks and more lukewarm milk, he sat back on the only chair at his dining table, moving the box of his memorabilia onto the floor next to his sofa.

He had let Mysteeri down on the other side of the table across from him, because he would have felt strange sitting at the table alone while the cat was eating off the floor. The house-elf came back with what he had asked for, before popping away to do who-knows-what. Digging into the soup, Severus couldn't help but start to eat quickly.

Skipping breakfast was something he did regularly, but he completely forgot about lunch as he was in sync with his potions and Mysteeri. He believed that the cats' owner must have been a Ravenclaw, because it was such a smart cat to understand what he was saying and know which ingredient was which!

He had also decided that instead of leaving the cat alone in his quarters on Monday as he taught, which was his original plan; he would take him into class with him – he still wasn't to be trusted alone in Severus' mind. Anyway, taking him to classes would allow each student to see him, and for Severus to find out who his real owner was.

Severus didn't particularly want to find out who his real owner was, and as he thought about this he couldn't help but think of why. He could easily say that it was because no matter the trouble he caused he was great at potions; or because he was a mystery that Severus wanted to figure out; or even that he was the only companion Severus could bear because he couldn't speak English and therefore talk non-stop!

But in his heart he knew that wasn't why. He knew that it was because the cat reminded him greatly of a particular student that he had certain feelings for that he didn't want to admit to having, not even himself in the darkest recesses of his mind.

~*~ POV-ish Change ~*~

"You little devil!" Snape shouted as Harry attempted to run out of the bathroom, having been let go as he scratched Snape's arm.

'What, did he think that I was going to stay and be a nice little kitty while he tried to dunk me into water? Given, he hadn't tried washing me in the seemingly super-human tub but in the sink, yet still. I didn't like getting wet as a cat, that was something that I knew before he even mentioned bathing. I could wash myself just fine thank you, instincts taught me how.' Harry thought, finishing it grimly as he was picked up by a large hand yet again.

"Look, I don't want to bathe you, and I can tell you don't want to be bathed," Harry sent him a look that said, "Really? What gave it away?" Snape ignored it, "but cleaning spells only do so much. Trust me, I won't let you drown. I promise." he said, trying to secure the midnight kitten in his firm grip.

Harry didn't know what possessed him to trust the elder man, he certainly hadn't before this, but maybe it was the fact that even after he destroyed the older wizard's living room, he didn't hurt the cat. If he didn't then, Harry prayed he wouldn't now. So he slowly stopped resisting, and let Snape dunk him into the water before pulling him back out quickly.

Snape then preceded with lathering him in shampoo, and rinsing it off, doing so twice to try and get off all of the soot that was left over. Harry could tell what Snape had meant when he said that cleaning spells didn't get everything, because the water started to turn a greyish colour as it rinsed him off.

Snape's hands were rubbing his back and digging slightly under the fur to loosen all of the dirt that was somewhat caked in. Harry closed his eyes and waited for it to end; even if he did trust the man, it didn't change the fact that he didn't like baths any more.

Snape must have been sensing that Harry still wasn't enjoying himself, so he tried to get done as soon as possible; which was a relatively short period of time. Though to Harry it could have been any amount of time, and it still would have felt like ages to him.

Before Harry opened his eyes, he started to feel the water taper off and then halt completely; so he knew that Snape had turned off the water. Next he felt a soft towel wrapped around him, and start to gently dry his body. When his body fur must have been dry, Snape used the towel to carefully and delicately dry each of his paws, and the inside of his ears. Harry didn't know that Snape could be so very gentle and, almost nice.

After his bath was done, Snape carried Harry into the bedroom, and after setting him on the bed, went to take his own shower now; so that he wouldn't have too in the morning, which was a Monday so he had to teach. Harry puzzled over what Snape would do with him while he was teaching a class. He'd probably want to take Harry with him because, well he didn't want a repeat of what happened before!

But surely Snape wouldn't actually take him in with him? Wouldn't that entirely ruin the face that Snape put up? Harry was starting to see a new side of the wizard that no one else go to: the caring, helpful, loveable side. In other words; the less Slytherin side of the man.

And Harry liked this side of him. He liked being the only person (or cat) that got to see it; even though Snape didn't realise that he was being nice to his once enemy and most hated student. Deciding that he didn't want to wait and have the possibility of seeing Snape naked (again), Harry ambled back up to the pillow he had started sleeping on the night before, wondering if he was going to end up on top of Snape again the next morning.

And surprisingly, the thought of doing doing so wasn't as repelling as it once would have been.

~*~ Small POV-ish Change ~*~

Severus, as he stripped and stepped into the shower, sighed in relief that Mysteeri was now clean, bathed, and hopefully already asleep. It was probably very strange, but Severus couldn't help but think of the certain student each time he saw Mysteeri... He had the same eyes... Consequently it was strange to have the kitten staring (or attempting not to), while he got changed.

Severus also tried to squash what he knew was starting to unravel and reveal itself because of Mysteeri. Those feelings that were never mentioned in his conscious mind, though they did seem to like worming their way into his dreams...

The wizard shook himself out of his thoughts as he felt the water start to go cold. Since this was a magical school there was no short supply of hot water, but the house-elves didn't want you staying too long in the shower so they put a charm on it that made it go cold after a while.

Stepping out of the spray and turning it off, Severus wrapped a towel around his waist and walked back into his own room, where, indeed, Mysteeri was already asleep; curled up on the pillow that he had used the night before.

~*~ Sleepy Time ~*~

Chapter 7: Breakfast

~*~ No One/Harry-ish POV ~*~

In the morning Harry woke, once again, on top of a moving pillow. Only this time he did not have any delusions about the pillow and he knew that it was, in fact, his potions professors chest, before even opening his eyes and yawning.

Slitting his eyes open to see if Snape was awake, Harry found that this time, he was not. Making a decision, Harry decided that he was comfortable where he was and would stay there until Snape pushed him off.

Snape did indeed push him off, after what seemed like only a few moments. Giving the man a startled cat yelp, Snape said, "I have to teach today, and I can not stay in bed all day waiting for you to get up yourself since you are coming with me." Snape afterwards left the bed to get changed into teaching robes.  
"So he is taking me with him. At least I will get too see Luna today. We have potions last period on Mondays... Though it will mean seeing Malfoy and Weasley as well." Harry thought as he did some morning stretches.

When the war was over and Voldemort was dead, most of the seventh years came back to repeat their seventh year since they did not really learn anything; and there were many, like himself, that had not gone to the school at all.

Remembering the night before, Harry started to bathe himself so that hopefully Snape would not try to do it for him. Harry did not want to go through that nightmare again, especially not so soon after the first time it happened. Seeing Snape start to come back into the room, Harry closed his eyes and pretended to yawn and still be stretching.

However, he could not help but stare, before his eyes were shut, at his professors well muscled chest – which was not something you could really tell he had when he was wearing those heavy and thick teaching robes.

Before allowing himself to wonder what Snape looked like without a towel on, Harry closed his eyes and blushed. Or thought he blushed, you could not really see the redness underneath his fur, but Harry felt the blood rising to his cheeks.

Not opening his eyes until he felt a hand lift him off the bed (something he was used to by now), he was surprised when the hand set him down on a shoulder. Looking around from this newly acquired hight, Harry decided that he liked being tall and liked to rest on Snape s shoulder. However, that was before Snape started walking.

If bathing was bad, walking had to be worse. For the first few minutes Harry gripped onto the heavily clothed shoulder with his claws unsheathed, fearing the fall that he had so easily admired not to long before. But on the way to the Great Hall for breakfast, Harry found that if he sat in just the right way, with his tail curling around the back of Snape s neck, then he would not fall off.

Harry did not recognise their path to the Great Hall, and so he decided that it must have been some back way for teachers that led to the teacher table, so the teachers did not have to degrade themselves and act like students; coming in the front doors each morning. That just was not something Harry thought a professor would do.

As Snape stepped into the hall after giving the password to a picture of a penguin in a bathing suit (ask not him why it was that particular picture though Snape himself did not seem to like it), Harry found that his before mentioned guess had been correct.

It was a back route to go into the back of the Hall. Already there were a few teachers at the teacher table, but there were not very many students yet, only a few studying at the Ravenclaw table; and a group of Hufflepuffs girls chatting about something.

Snape walked onto the slightly raised platform that staged the teachers table, pulling it out and sitting in a seat that was next to McGonagall and at the end of the table. McGonagall looked over as she heard the chair move, and gasped when she saw him.

"Severus, where did you get such a cute kitten?" she asked, ignoring that she knew Snape did not like people. Harry marvelled at Snape s first name – Severus. He had, of course, heard it before, but never really stopped to think that it was a nice name.

"I found him wandering the halls of Hogwarts lost and alone." Snape – Severus – replied. Harry rolled his eyes at it, of course he would take a roundabout way of answering her question so that he did not actually answer it at all!

"I am sorry, where?" McGonagall asked with... Patience? She never had patience when it came to students! Was that because she possibly used up all of her patience on Snape – Severus! - instead?

"I guess that he would be more deserving of it than us, but maybe she could save just a little for those she taught?" Harry thought as the human duo continued talking.

Severus – aha! - answered, "I found him being chased by Mrs. Norris and saved him from a very gruesome death." McGonagall looked slightly shocked that Severus had made a joke, and Harry felt like laughing in her face. Though he refrained from doing so because not too long ago he too, would have been sporting a similar look.

When Severus was not looking Harry slinked off his shoulder and onto the table, making sure that he was preoccupied with talking to his Transfiguration Professor about every little thing she could think to ask about. Again while he was not looking, Harry began to nibble at some bacon that Severus had already put onto his plate.

It took the man a few moments to realise what was happening before shooing him off the food that was now half-eaten anyway. Harry heard McGonagall laugh as he did so, and Harry protested. Realising that the cat would just keep eating his food while his back was turned, Snape used another, smaller plate for him; placing the half eaten piece of bacon onto it for him to eat which Harry did so.

Breakfast went by pretty uneventful after that, though Harry could tell that when the Great Hall filled the students were whispering about him, mainly the Slytherins and Gryffindors. Word that Severus Snape, Greasy Potions Master and Git had a cute, adorable, and cuddly looking kitten got around fast, so everyone was talking about him.

Not that Harry was not used to it by now of course, and so he just paid them no attention. That is until he was finished eating, then he sat next to Severus elbow and gazed around the hall like a wise cat. In Gryffindor he saw Neville looking around, no doubt for himself as a human, confused, before looking up at him even more puzzled.

Harry s eyes wandered over to where Luna was sitting at the Ravenclaw table all alone (Luna did not have very many friends because they all thought she was loony), who was one of the only not looking at him.

Until her head slowly came around and she gazed right back up at him, and looking him in the eye, she smiled.

"She knows." was what Harry thought as Luna walked over to the Gryffindor table, waiting for Neville to join her, probably talking about nargles, before leaving the room.

Harry could only feel happy that at least one person knew who he actually was, so that if they never saw him again, at least one person would know what happened to him.

Chapter 8: Potions Class

~*~ No-One/Harry-ish POV ~*~

Harry's breakfast ended shortly after he watched Luna and Neville leave, as Severus had to get to his own class early to prepare the classroom and finish some last minute grading. The last thing amused Harry the most, because the idea that Severus still hadn't finished his grading and was slightly under pressure to finish it so he could give it out on time would have been preposterous to any of the students.

Severus always seemed to have absolutely everything ready the moment the stepped into the cold stone room; also though, the fact that Severus could feel pressure was hilarious to students, especially those that knew of his spying.

Any one would think that a man who could constantly go back to Lord Voldemort and lie or say only half-truths to his face, knowing that if you slipped up you were killed or at the least crucioed wouldn't feel pressure at all. But that wasn't true because he did feel pressure, though only Harry knew about it because pressure was a very human like thing to do and, so far, it would seem that he was one of the only people (or cats) who got to see him act human.

Which was why after the two were done eating Severus carried him back down to the dungeons, only this time with his classroom as a destination instead of his personal quarters. Severus set Harry down so that he could 'explore' the classroom as he had his own rooms (which he had done before he got into everything and made it a disaster), so Harry started to look around to try and find out more about the room so Severus wouldn't know that he had been there before.

Many times actually, and at one point (when he was much younger than now), he had loathed coming to the place, and at this age (before Cat-Dom came upon him) started to cherish it. Severus gave him strict instructions, before he left to go into his office and finish the grading that he still had left over (probably because Harry was taking up most of his time), that, "You must treat this place as you would my own potions lab. You can help the students if they do something wrong, or point out when they need to add a specific ingredient; but please don't harm yourself while doing so."

Walking around the floor of the classroom again, Harry decided that the floor was boring; so he jumped up onto one of the chairs and then onto one of the desks. The seats weren't so high off the ground as the one in Severus' personal quarters was; making it a lot easier to jump up onto them, and most likely less life threatening. The room didn't really look all that different to how Harry remembered it, and he realised that it had only been two days of his being a cat!

"Wow! So much can happen in two days... I found out Severus can act human, I pranked him, slept in his bed, had Severus almost kill me, I've seen him half naked, helped him with potions, gone with him to breakfast and sat on his shoulder. I even started calling him Severus in my head! Not necessarily in that order." Harry thought as he estimated the distance between desks. "I've even eaten off of his plate and let him bathe me!"

Harry guessed that the length between the tables couldn't be more than three or four feet. Taking a deep breath, Harry walked back from the edge a little bit to get a running start, and jumped over the gap; prepared to mew loudly were something to go wrong.

He made the landing quite easily, and he realised that cats must be pretty good jumpers. He had been scared a little bit because the gap was four times as wide as he was, and he hadn't always been smooth on his paws.

"I must be getting better at it the more I become used to being a cat." Harry explained to himself. Hearing soft footfalls coming from behind the door, Harry knew that the first Potions class was a little far off but that breakfast must have ended. Jumping back to the table he was originally on, the midnight kitten jumped towards the front of the room.

At the last desk before the teachers' there was a much wider gap; but still one that he thought he could do if he had enough of a head start. Walking backwards a little bit, Harry took another deep breath and ran.

And he jumped.

It wasn't as nice of a landing as between the desks, but it was a landing on his target all the same. Personally Harry was just happy that he didn't fall to the floor. Sitting so that he was facing the back of the room (away from the black board), Harry wrapped his tail over his front paws and waited for Severus to either go open the door himself or let it swing open on its own.

Severus must have decided to let it swing open on its own because after a second there were many young children filing into the room and sitting down in their seats. Harry could tell by the way one group of kids sat on one side and the other group on the opposite side, the two houses for this class were rivals, without even needing to look at their ties he knew it would be Gryffindor and Slytherin.  
Judging by the roundness of their faces and a shortness shared by the class in general, Harry would have guessed that they were the first year Gryffindors and Slytherins. This was something Harry hated the most about rivalry because they started this hate between them solely because all of the others in their house had it for the other one.

When they had first met each other (on the train or in the school) they could have become friends, they didn't even know each other; but because of a coloured tie and an animal emblem on their robes it was no longer possible. And it was this that made Harry sad as he thought of the first years.

But his thoughts turned slightly darker as one of the braver first year Gryffindor boys came up to try and pet him. As soon as the hand got near his head he snapped at the boy; who probably thought he was going to be bit.

Severus came in at the point and smirked, "He doesn't like being touched by many people. Five points from Gryffindor, Mr. Buchan, for being out of your seat." The Gryffindor looked ready to snap back to him; perhaps about almost being bit, when one of the Gryffindor girls pulled him into a seat.

Severus' smirk widened, "Today we are going to be working on the Wide Eye Potion. Can any of you dunderheads tell me what it does when consumed?" The Gryffindor girl from earlier raised her hand in a way that reminded Harry greatly of Hermione.

Severus ignored her and asked the Gryffindor boy beside to her, "Mr. Buchan, how about you? Do you know what it does?"

"Gives you wide eyes and farther vision?" the boy answered in a steely way as if he were trying not to shout at the teacher, yet ending it as if it were a question. This boy reminded him of Ron.

"Wrong Mr. Buchan, and five more points for your cheek. The Wide Eye potion is a potion that prevents the drinker from falling asleep, it can also be used to awake somebody from a concussion or drugging. It is the only antidote for The Draught of The Living Death. However, overuse or over-dosage of it can cause a person to become extremely hyperactive and unable to sit still for more than a few minutes."

As he was talking a piece of chalk started writing on the black board behind him, and Severus, said, "The instructions are on the blackboard, you've until only five minutes are left at the end of class to work on your potion; when the time is up, I will come around to check your potion. If it is good I will have you put it in a phial and onto my desk. If it is horrible I will give you a detention so that you can remake it until it is up to good standards."

Harry watched as Severus sat down behind his desk and as the students all stood up to go and get their cauldrons, ingredients, and other things important to potions making. Severus gave Harry a small smile and pet him on the head as he started to go over some papers on his desk. Waiting for all of the students to get settled, Harry planned on helping the students so that they didn't end up in detention.

As if they (most likely Gryffindors) ended up in detention, then Severus and himself would have to watch over the detention. Which meant less time alone with Severus acting like a human. Hopping from the teachers' table to the nearest desk (which was unoccupied as the whole front row of desks were), Harry tried to figure out who needed the most help.

Barely glancing at the Slytherins, Harry saw a red faced boy struggling and about to add five batwings instead of six. Jumping between the tables, careful not to interfere with the other students' work or get knocked off, Harry made it to the boy quickly. He nudged one more batwing towards the boy who looked a little afraid of the cat that was thought to be Professor Snape's familiar. Harry nodded towards the board and then to the batwing, and the child seemed to understand what he was trying to get across, six batwings instead of five.

The rest of the class went on as Harry helped the students (mostly Gryffindors but a few Slytherins) with their potions. This was a pattern that continued on throughout the day with the two house pairs (Gryffindor and Slytherin was one, Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff the other). After the first class was the other group of first years, who were smart enough to not try and touch him, Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff, so they were doing the Wide Eye potion as well.

Then it was the third year Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs, who were doing the Shrinking Solution; the other third year class also doing the same. Another pattern that showed itself was Harry snapping and hissing at the children that tried to touch or pet him. So there was a small uproar in the seventh year 'all houses' period class, where a few people got to pet the little kitten.

Chapter 9: More Potions and Purple Sludge

Harry sat waiting on the professor's table as he had waited at the beginning of each class that had gone by, only now he was highly excited because it was the last class of the day; but also because it was the seventh period class with everyone still taking potions from his year were in it. How some people managed to get into the class (like Ron and Neville for instance) would stay a mystery to most people, though Harry thought that it was most likely because of a few words said to an unhappy Severus Snape at the beginning of the year by an old man named Albus Dumbledore.

Allowing a little cat smile to grace his face, Harry saw the seventh year students pouring into the room, anxious for the class to be over so they could go back to their common rooms for the day. Severus was already standing and talked to them about the potion they were doing; Harry didn't quite catch the name, but that it would count as a large part of their final score.

The first thing Harry did was jump over to where Neville was sitting, he knew that Neville was most likely to make the first mistake, and that if anyone needed help it was him. Sitting in the middle of the room on the row of desks to the left was Neville, with Hermione and Ron behind him, Seamus and Dean in front of him. No one sat next to Neville because his only Gryffindor friend was Harry, Luna and Neville were of course friends and in the same class but Luna wasn't allowed sitting with Neville because she was a Ravenclaw.

On his way over to Neville, the kitten could already see a mistake about to made, where Neville was going to add two extra pieces of chopped Gurdyroot to the cauldron. Nudging Neville's hand away from the group of roots (that smelled horrible if you were wondering and didn't know), afterwards he carefully used his front right paw to bat away two of the pieces. He then looked at Neville expectantly.

"Oh." he said, realising that the cat was waiting for him to put the roots into the cauldron. Now that the Gurdyroot was added, Neville had three minutes before he needed to add in thirteen powdered lacewings. Harry rubbed against Neville's hand and Neville hesitantly petted the cat, looking up to see what Snape thought of what he was doing to the cat. Seeing that Snape wasn't even looking his way, Neville decided that it would be alright to pet the adorable little kitten.

However, after a few pets to the cat's back, it slipped away from Neville and jumped over to the Slytherin table where Draco Malfoy wasn't paying attention to his potion. Smacking the blonde haired boy in the head with his tail, Harry waited for Draco to stir his potion seven times counter-clockwise before getting Draco to pet him.

For a while now Harry wanted to apologize for not accepting Draco's friendship at the beginning of his first year, but every time he tried he couldn't. He figured this was his way of saying sorry. When Draco was done petting him and had to go back to his potion, Harry went over to Luna to see how she was doing.

Many of the students were quiet and working on their potions, the ones with a small amount of free time (like Neville had had) were watching him, as they had all heard of 'Professor Snape's cat that helped students with potions (regardless of house) but didn't let anyone except Professor Snape touch him.'

Now Neville, the clumsiest Gryffindor known to man got to pet him, but so did Draco Malfoy, Slytherin Prince. From what the students could see, the cat was also going to let a Ravenclaw pet it as well. Luna Lovegood looked up at the cat as it made its way over to her, and she added the two ounces of centaur hair to her potion, which was a pretty lilac colour.

"Hello Harry," she whispered so no one else could hear. Harry rolled his eyes and she gave him a pat on the head.

Looking around the room once more, Harry paid attention to the Gryffindor side of the room where, yes, Ron was looking at him. His potion kept getting save by Hermione, sitting right next to him who was paying the cat little to no attention; not that Harry cared though. He had something to do and he needed to do it now, now that it was near the end of class.

Hopping over towards the Gryffindor tables, Harry paused to help Neville once again and to get one, slightly more confident, touch of on the head. Landing noiselessly on Ron and Hermione's table he hoped to trick one of them (most likely Ron) into doing something wrong and getting their potions blown up.

The black furred kitten could tell that Ron didn't want to trust him and Hermione was still absorbed in her own potion, but upon seeing the cat she stopped helping Ron probably believing that Harry would. Harry looked at Ron's potion to see it was a sickly purple, instead of the light lilac it was meant to be, but it would still pass as it was with an Acceptable.

Nodding to the rabbit's foot next to Ron's hand, Harry tried to relay that he should add it into the potion. Ron didn't know if he should trust the cat, because he was Snape's cat, and he did help Malfoy, but he also helped Neville, so Ron decided that it was okay to accept help from the cat whom he later started to hate.

As soon as the foot was added, the potion started to bubble, and Harry, knowing it was going to explode, hopped back over onto Neville's table, making sure that both he and Neville were out of the range of spray. Harry knew what was going to happen because adding the rabbit's foot to early created a bad chemical reaction with the Gurdyroot; and unless it was set on high heat (which Ron's was on low), the fountain of purple-ish liquid would only have a spray of about a foot or two.

It was perfect because the spray went far enough to land in Hermione's cauldron effectively ruining it, and also to cover both Ron and Hermione in the purple sludge. However, it didn't go out far enough to destroy anyone else's potion or to touch anyone else.

Harry waited for the now red and purple faced Ron to look up at him, the red from anger and the purple from the liquid that was trickling down his face; before smirking like a true Slytherin cat, and hopping across the tables back up to Severus who was watching and waiting with slightly shocked eyes and a raised eyebrow.

Petting the cat he cared for (though he would never admit it), Severus said, "Mr. Weasley, what did you do this time?"

Ron's mouth dropped open from shock, "ME? I didn't do ANYTHING! It was that STUPID CAT!"

Severus stood up in the now deathly silent room, and walked over to Ron. "Excuse me?" he whispered in a deadly quiet voice. "I would prefer it if you could refrain from insulting my pet, Mr. Weasley. It is your own fault that not only your own potion but also Ms. Granger's, is ruined. Fifty points from Gryffindor for abuse of class materials." Severus started back on his way to the teacher's desk.

"WHAT!" Ron shouted before Hermione could stop him. "That's not fair!"

Severus smirked at him, "Life isn't fair Mr. Weasley. Another ten points for back talking a teacher. All of you, leave."

It was almost eerie that he commanded them to leave as the bell rung, signifying the end of the day. Harry climbed up Severus' arm and sat on his shoulder as he watched the students clean up and put everything away, Hermione and Ron staying behind later than the others due to the purple sludge.

As Ron gave Harry one last glare, Severus stood up from his desk and walked through to his office from the classroom; and through his office he swung a portrait to open a small hallway that ended in a door needing a password (which he gave correctly), and from there they were in Severus' personal quarters.

Chapter 10: Feelings

 

~ No-One/Harry-ish POV ~

Thinking about the prank he pulled on Ron, and the fact that he got away with it; his only punishment a glare, made Harry more satisfied with being Severus' cat than he had been before. It didn't help that he had strange feelings growing for the man, that always decided to make themselves known whenever he was around said tall dark man; which both luckily and unluckily for Harry, was most of the time that Harry was awake and asleep.

The only time Harry really wasn't with Severus was when Severus or himself had to go to the bathroom; or when Severus took a shower. The latter experience was strangest for Harry, considering that whenever this happened the human looking wizard always came back with just a towel slung around his hips; before removing it also and changing into regular or sleeping clothes.

It was awkward for Harry because he both wanted to watch, for the man had a nice body; yet he also wanted to look away, to give him some privacy and try to stomp the feelings and butterflies in his stomach. The feelings only got worse for the wizard turned cat however, and by the end of the week, he had to admit it, if only to himself, that he deeply love the man who was always clothed in black, and the students said resembled a bat.

Chapter 11: Teacher's Meeting

~ Time Skip, One Week Later ~

One night, a Wednesday actually, Harry was laying on his favourite potions teachers' lap being petted and relaxing in front of the fire; while said teacher was reading a book on the effect and uses of Devi, a poisonousness plant that grew berries during the mid-winter.

Harry startled back from the fire and out of his light daze as the flames suddenly burst out a puff or red ash and smoke; which Harry recognised as someone trying to firecall. Severus jumped up and, after carefully settling Harry down onto the chair so as to not hurt him, rushed over to the fire before kneeling down and sticking his head in.

Trying to guess at who the call was from, Harry wasn't really all that worried about it, that is until Severus' face repapered out of the fire with a frowning mouth and creased brow, muttering something unintelligible under his breath.

"I wonder what Albus wants now..." he mumbled, before turning to his pet cat that was watching him intently. "That was Professor McGonagall, the woman I talked to on your first trip into the Great Hall when you ate off of my plate. She says that Albus - the headmaster of this school – has called an emergency teachers meeting and I have to go. Sorry, but I can't take you with me."

Harry let out a disgruntled mew, and, jumping up from his seat, rubbed his head against the elder man's open and outstretched hand; trying to convey that he didn't want Severus to leave him. Although, Harry knew that Severus would still have to go, and completely understood why he couldn't go with, it didn't change that he wished it was different.

"I know," Severus sympathised, petting Harry on the head and down his back, "but I have to go – it's the headmaster's orders – and I'm just not allowed taking you to it. I'll be back very soon though. Don't worry. And please don't get into anything."

Severus and Harry had gotten past the point where Harry trashed his living rooms – and Severus finally trusted Harry alone in the room. This would be his test, if he didn't get into anything then he would be trusted, and Harry knew this.

So he settled himself back in front of the fire as he saw Severus walk out the door, and thought, 'Time to take a nap.'

No-One/Severus-ish POV

Severus gave the black kitten one last look before he headed out the door, praying to Merlin that he didn't get into anything. As he walked to the Headmaster's office, he thought of how happy he was that none of the students had claimed him as their own pet.

That meant that Mysteeri might have been a stray, and it couldn't explain everything he'd done (such as know which ingredients are which and bring them to him in his mouth) that was very humane; but it also meant that he could keep him. He loved gloating over everything that the cat was capable of in front of Minerva, for her own cats could do no such great deeds; even though she could turn into a cat and talk to them herself. Thinking of Minerva, he turned the corner into the hallway where the gargoyles were situated. He knew that he would be the last to arrive, he always was, because it took longer than everyone else's paths to walk from the dungeons to here; which was much closer to the Gryffindor tower.

Saying the password, "Milk Duds." which Severus personally thought was ridiculous, (What kind of dud becomes milk?), and the man quickly ascended the steps to the office the meeting room. No students could get into the meeting room, because it was in one of the hallways that branched off where the stairs placed you in front of directly, which was the office.

Of course, all of the teachers couldn't be forced in the office comfortably, so there were two hallways. One to the right that branched off to the Headmaster's personal quarters, and to the left was he meeting room. Most students who notice them, let alone stop to think about it, probably believe that they both lead to the Headmaster's quarters.

Opening the tall door that even Hagrid could make it through, Severus heard Albus from the head of the table say brightly, "Ah, Severus my boy! I was starting to worry you had gotten held up!"

"Not at all." Severus replied quietly, before taking the only empty seat left, next to Poppy.

"So you are all probably wondering what could have happened since our last meeting was only a week ago." Albus pronounced, which was obviously true if the small murmurs of agreement throughout the room were anything to go by, though Severus himself did not contribute. "Well, it would seem that one student has gone missing, having not been seen since Friday's afternoon classes ended."

Severus' worry started to grow in his stomach, though he tried to squish it; because, really, was was the likelihood that it was the only student he truly cared about? With that thought in his head, he realised that out of everyone in the school, it was who he cared about that was actually the most likely to be in trouble or up to some mischief. After hearing the next word Albus spoke, he felt like groaning.

"Harry's friends did not come sooner because it is not always unusual for Harry to go off somewhere for a weekend without telling them; though he did always tell him when he got back. I also believe that Harry missing classes isn't at all unusual either?" he left it in a question for the teachers to answer.

"Sometimes he isn't in Transfiguration, even though he would go to lunch which he has right after. I asked him about it one day, and he told me that it was because some of the kids in the class pick on him when I'm not looking. After that I tried to pay attention to them, but I know that I miss some of it. So, whenever it gets hard for Harry or so I believe, he skips class. But he always comes to get any work or homework from me that night or the next. He doesn't skimp out on work because of this." Minerva said proudly, probably thinking on how responsible the boy was.

Many of the others had similar stories to tell of; Harry would skip class whenever the bullying would get to hard for him to handle; but would also always come to get the work to do so he wouldn't be behind. It was always turned in on time with the rest of the class, even if he hadn't actually heard or been taught the material by a teacher.

Albus decided that he had heard enough, and he quieted them with a hand, "Is anyone worried that the boy is missing, or do we think that he is simply gone off on another adventure?" Severus knew that if any other student had been presumably missing for five days that there would be an immediate search party, but this wasn't any other student. This was Harry Potter.

However, in answer to the blue-eyed wizard, the teachers went around the table in an orderly fashion saying whether or not they thought Harry was missing and why. Severus knew what he was going to say, and he had a great reason for it.

Which means that he was ready when it was his turn to speak, "I believe that Potter is missing." Albus nodded for him to explain. "Even if he has missed some of your classes, where it is easy to remake lost work, it is not so in Potions. Potter has yet to skip my class as he has yours, except for the last three days. And personally, I think we should send a search party."

Yes, there were many gasps from the others as he stated that he wanted to do something to help the boy. But Albus carried on anyway, and a damn twinkle in his eye. 'One would think that he had known that this would happen.' Severus thought to himself as he subtley rubbed his temples, waiting for this to be over so he could go and see how his cat was doing.

Chapter 12: After The Meeting

~*~ No One/Harry-ish POV ~*~

Harry was still lazing about in front of the warm fire when Severus came back; he could tell that Severus was relieved that he had quarters to come back to and not a bomb site, like the last time he had left Harry alone. Harry hadn't planned on destroying anything because he didn't really want to spite the man any more. T had lost its appeal at some point over the last few days.

Though there was relief flooding his face still, an expression of annoyance was being shown also; obviously something that had happened or been talked about during the meeting worried Severus. Since he wasn't one to worry, or at least not that he would worry and admit it later that he did, Harry knew that Severus acted annoyed at whatever was worrying him.

It seemed to work most of the time, to cover up the other emotions that were brewing under that carefully used and trained mask. No one truly noticed that something was off; except for Harry – though it wasn't really fair to say that. He had been technically living with man for almost a week; and there wasn't much else to focus on other than him. Even if he could tell when Severus was wearing the mask, Harry didn't like it at all, it kept him from seeing the real Severus Snape.

Standing up and stretching briefly, Harry walked between Severus' legs in a figure eight like motion; Severus bent down to pick him up before sitting on his chair in a similar position to how he had been settled before he had been fire called. Harry sat back on his haunches, using Severus' knee as a platform, before giving the man a small mewling sound.

The adolescent-turned-cat shot him a knowing look that said, 'Tell me what happened.' Severus gave him a fond pet on the head, before running his hand down the midnight cat's spine and tail. Taking a deep breath he summoned a glass of Firewhisky from his cabinets, and took a sip of the golden liquid, before speaking.

"The entire meeting was all relatively simple – Albus was looking for some advice on what he thinks we should do on the subject of a certain matter. Said like that, it probably doesn't give much reason for me to be angry or annoyed. But it's that he needed our advice on the pertaining subject that makes me feel unhappy.

"A student had gone missing and if it had been any other student there would have been a meeting; but it would have been to tell the teachers about it and to assign where the search party should go. Not if there should be a search at all!" Severus growled out the last sentence and stopped to take another gulp of the strong alcoholic drink that burned slightly on its way down his throat.

Harry was a little frightened by this suddenly angry Severus and tensed, which Severus realised, so he tried to calm himself down so as to not scare the cat any more. Waiting for his mind to clear again, Severus continued, though Harry thought he had a pretty good idea as to which student had gone missing and why Severus was annoyed about it.

"The fact that Potter can leave for a few days and not be seen by anybody, skipping classes, meals, and Merlin knows what else with no one really caring or noticing is ridiculous! I also can't believe that they would let Potter just skip out on class like that because the other Gryffindor's are saying nasty things to him!" Harry narrowed his eyes at this.

Did he truly hate Harry that much to think that he should just stay there and take it? It wouldn't have been so bad if there was only one or two people doing it to him; but it was practically all of the Gryffindors older than first year. Except Neville. It didn't help that when he had tried to turn to Hermione and Ron they both said nasty things to him too. But how could this man say that when he himself was bullied? Was it because he was a Potter that he was saying this? And it was his father's fault that he himself had been bullied? Was that it?

Harry watched Severus take another gulp of the Firewhisky before continuing, " They should have been suspended or taken care of or have had their parents called! It would have been much smarter than just letting him not come in when he didn't feel like going. It just shows how inept at teaching they can be to even allow the remarks to be made at all."

Severus scowled into his drink, and Harry butted his head against the teacher's hand. Now he understood, he was blaming it not on him, (human him not cat him) but the teachers and Gryffindors that were bullying him. See? Harry knew that Severus was really a good hearted man, once you get past the masks, ice, and snarky comments that he makes of course.

"I suppose I also don't like that Potter going off on his own and staying away from everyone, even his friends, isn't unusual to them. Potter never went off on his own when he was younger; and if I am going to admit it, I don't like the idea that he is starting to remind me of me. My childhood was horrible. If he's starting to act like me then nothing good could be happening; nothing good at all."

Harry couldn't help but attest to that. It wasn't that anything too bad was happening; he just wasn't dealing with the death of everyone and his killing Voldemort very well. That was all. Well, there was also the fact that he was getting bullied by most of his house mates. Harry came out of his thoughts, once again, to listen to Severus talk.

"You're probably wondering why it matters so much to me what happens to him; and it's because I care about him. As much of his father as he used to be, he isn't any more – and, I think that I may be in love with him." There was a silent pause. "Why did I have to become infatuated with the most famous and wanted man to walk the planet? Of course, he could have absolutely anyone he wanted, so why would he go for me?"

Harry was shocked to say the least. He knew that he was falling for his professor, but for Severus to admit that he loved Harry? The Gryffindor-Slytherin was in heaven thinking about it. He had always thought that Severus hated him – maybe now he had a chance! Unless, and the thought sobered Harry up considerably, Severus wouldn't love him much after he found out that Harry was pretending to be a cat, his cat, and he did ruin the man's living room not to long ago.

If Severus ever found out he would probably think that Harry was trying to spy on him to get information to use against him or embarrass him with. Mysteeri was probably the only person – or cat, for that matter, – that he had ever admitted this too. Though it was likely Dumbledore knew anyway; that man seemed to know everything!

This made Harry do a retake – if he found out that Harry was Mysteeri and they were one and the same, he would think that Harry was going to laugh at him for admitting he was in love with him and it could be the ultimate black mail material. He would think that Harry planned on using as the ultimate black mail material.

Not that Harry would ever dream of using it as blackmail material, he cared for Severus and wouldn't want to do anything to upset him. Harry knew that it could all be sorted out with a nice, long, private talk if Severus found out about it – but he didn't know if Severus would find out when he was a cat or when he was human.

And truthfully, he couldn't say for sure that Severus would still love him after he found out, though he deeply hoped the potions professor would. Severus' voice broke him out of his occupied thoughts, the whole thing could not have taken more than a minute or two for Harry to think through.

"Never mind, I know the answer to that question: he wouldn't. He wouldn't go for me because he would never want someone so old, old enough to be his father, or someone that has acted horribly to him for the past seven years. The entire time that he's known me I have acted absolutely bastardly to him. Even if the whole time it was just that, an act." Severus sighed before standing up, carefully dropping Harry onto the floor; careful not to kick or step on one of his paws.

Harry nuzzled his hand in a cat instinct kind of way, and Severus seemed to understand what he was trying to relay, "Thanks for letting me know that you would choose me. But you're still only a cat. It's kind of pathetic you're not only my only friend, but that you also are the one I trust the most." And with that Severus left to do his nightly ritual, making Harry slightly uncomfortable yet again.

Before Harry went to sleep, on the pillow next to the man that he loved, he thought about a lot of the things that was going on; and what exactly, he wanted to happen. He did and didn't want Severus to find out, because there were good things that could come with both; but there were also risks that had to be taken to achieve those good things.

For example: if Severus found out about him really being Harry Potter, then he could help him change back and then they could get together and Harry would get to kiss the man that loved him and it would be a really sappy happy ever after for the Boy-Who-Lived. That was the best case scenario.

The worst case scenario was that Severus wouldn't help him change back and would kick him out into Hogwarts to be shredded into pieces by Mrs. Norris or some other large animal that wouldn't care about him. At least, that was what Harry's nightmares told him was the worst thing.

He pictured Mrs. Norris ripping him to pieces, while Severus just stood off to the side laughing. And not the laugh that he loved, the one that sounded like dark velvet; but the one that was high and cruel, doing so with a sneer on his face. Harry didn't want that to happen.

The second thing that could happen was Severus wouldn't find out at all and Harry could stay his cat for ever after people got over the fact that Harry Potter had disappeared and wasn't coming back. Though Harry wasn't going to say that this was his most wanted option, it was by far better than Mrs. Norris.

Or, Severus wouldn't ever find out but Harry could sneak away too Professor McGonagall, where she could help him turn back into a human. Then Severus would have to deal with the loss of his cat, but it wouldn't be too bad, right? Mysteeri showed up out of no where, and would leave with no warning too.

Again, Harry didn't really prefer this one; he would have to pretend that he did not know anything from when he was Mysteeri. He would have to pretend that he hadn't helped the man with his potions, hadn't slept next to him each night, hadn't trashed his living room, hadn't destroyed Ron and Hermione's potions, and hadn't ever been in his personal quarters before. If he ever let one small thing slip, absolutely anything, then he would be in some deep shit.

Rationally, Harry realised that none of this was really all that likely. Severus probably wouldn't feed him to the old watch cat and it would be inevitable that Severus find out about his being Mysteeri; even if he could sneak off to Professor McGonagall.

The most accurate idea was that Severus would find out, help him become human again, and then he would hate Harry for spying on him. If, when this time came, Harry could just get the man to listen to him about what had happened – all of it, the Chamber, the Potion, everything – then with all of his luck he might forgive him.

If he was lucky.

Which many people had already told him that he was, so Harry just hoped that his luck wouldn't run out on him when he needed it the most. Satisfied that he knew what he wanted to happen, Harry closed his eyes and fell asleep; ready to face whatever decided to come at him the next day.

Chapter 13: When Harry Potter Goes Missing

~*~ No-One Harry-ish POV ~*~

Over the next few days Harry tried to comfort Severus, but it was a little hard to do since he was still in cat form, not forgetting to mention the cause of his distress. In the morning of the first day following the meeting, after they arrived at the head table for breakfast (the cat / boy on Severus' shoulders of course), and the boy turned cat heard the Potions Master talking to Minerva about his disappearance.

If it was not his fault that the elder wizard was in discomfort and if the reason for the talk was not so serious, Harry would have found it amusing to see the usually uncaring and unfeeling man of the dungeons trying to cover up that he was, in fact, worried about himself, Harry bloody Potter.

Thankfully, for Severus anyway, the other teachers were far too occupied to realise that he was starting to talk and sound as though he was actually extremely concerned for 'the brat', as he often called the Gryffindor Golden Boy when discussing him with the other teachers..

It did not really hit him until later how the teachers were all going to such great lengths to try and find him. Though they still had to teach their classes during the day (they were actually trying to cover up that he was missing from the students, and doing quite a good job of it), they put in a lot of extra hours after classes were over and at night; walking the halls looking for him after hours.

Harry over heard Severus muttering about having to stay up all night looking for 'the brat'. Apparently the teachers and headmaster were a little confused as to where they needed to look; there were, after all, not many places some one could hide in the castle for such a long time without being seen.

The first place the headmaster had one of them check was the Room of Requirement, which probably would have been the most likely place for himself to go, Harry knew, if he truly had been just trying to hide away.

The Saviour of the wizarding world wondered what they would have done if he were in the Chamber of Secrets, since it would not open up for anyone who was not a Parslemouth. Harry had the idea that Dumbledore would know, because he was always going on about how Hogwarts was a truly sentient being and knew what those inside her needed the most.

He pondered on whether or not the school would know he was down there (in the chamber) and if Dumbledore would be able to send some one down there to go and get / search for him or not. He decided that it was unimportant when he could not come up with an answer.

Some of the teachers were worried that he had been kidnapped or left school grounds or ran to the Forbidden Forest, but Dumbledore had apparently assured them all that Hogwarts knew Harry was inside of her, (because she was after all completely and entirely sentient) and that he was not dead or harmed in any way.

Of course, Harry only knew all of this and what was happening because he had over heard Severus grumbling and muttering about it before he slipped into the bed each night. The boy who lived was feeling a little guilty about the whole thing; it was after all his fault that every one was in a panic searching for him when he was, in fact, just hiding away in the Potions Master's rooms.

But Harry did not have a way of telling every one that he was actually there; and he could not face telling every one, not yet. He needed to try and think through every thing that could happen and plan for it instead of just rushing in and doing it. He did that with the potion before taking it, he would not do it again. He had enough problems.

In the mean time, Harry was trying to keep anyone from finding out he was a cat before he was ready. Each time Severus came back after another teachers meeting (which was held before each search), where they talked about where they had searched, new places to look, and tried to come up with different ways of trying to track him down, Harry could not help but feel a little jittery.

He was terrified that at the meeting some thing would have happened that let them all find out (or just Severus) that he was also Mysteeri. Thankfully the raven haired man had not yet realised that his being jumpy was because of the threat of being found out, (though he did not know what Severus thought on his being jumpy), and instead calmed him down after meetings by petting him and telling him what happened.

Then he would talk about having to go out and stalk the halls around the dungeons for him, with nothing of real consequence to say on the matter since they never found anything. Severus always said that he never expected to "find Harry", because if "the boy" was hiding in the castle some where then "he would never hide in Slytherin territory".

Harry, obviously, knew that each time the silky haired man came back there would be nothing for him to say in that matter or tell him about – they, after all, would not have been able to find him.

In Potions class the students were getting slammed on even harder as they were left to wonder what had their professor in such an exceptionally bad mood (and for someone who was in a bad mood all the time, 'exceptionally' was down right terrifying). The Gryffindors, to no ones surprise, got hit down on the most.

Watching the man mark essays and other bits of homework after long tiring days with what little spare time he had left, Harry could tell that it would be no better for the students in that aspect of their schooling either. Severus had also been handing out pop quizzes like they were going out of fashion (though at Hogwarts they had never really been in fashion in the first place), and each one was marked down hideously low.

Even the Slytherins were not getting good grades on their papers like they usually did (because they were competent, not because Severus was favouring though he did still tend to favour in class from habit) – and each looked like a bloody battle had been fought over them considering how much red ink there was to be found all over them.

Harry continued trying to help the students during class (except for Ron, Hermione, and his other Gryffindor bullies who definitely did not deserve it); as it was kind of his fault that their professor was in such a bad mood and taking it out on them.

A spectator watching one of the classes take place would have found it hilarious – to see a small black cat jumping around the tables, helping more than the actual teacher for the course did. Harry hoped that he would be able to come up with a plan soon to put an end to all of this madness and stress that every one was facing.

It was a few days after the first meeting that started it all, a week to be exact, when some substantial information on Harry Potter's whereabouts and how to find him was actually shown.

Chapter 14: Finding Out He's Harry

~*~ No-One Severus-ish POV ~*~

Severus could not believe it to be true. A week, seven days, one hundred and sixty eight hours, ten thousand and eighty minutes, or six hundred four thousand and eight hundred seconds, and they had nothing on Harry Potter. Nothing.

They had not seen hide nor tail of him, and there were no remnants of a trail he might have left behind. The only thing anyone could find was the boy's cloak and wand, lying in a pile in an old, forgotten and disused hallway.

Poppy, Filius, Hagrid and some of the other professors and staff members were worried that he could have gotten hurt with out his wand, or that some one might have done some thing to him which Severus found ridiculous. If some one actually had attacked the boy, then why did they find his school cloak and wand just lying on the ground? Surely the attacker would have at least taken the wand with him?

Yet Severus found himself having to admit that by the end of the week he was also getting worried.

He was also worried about his new pet cat, who seemed to be very on edge as of late. Though Severus did not really have any idea why Mysteeri would be so incredibly jumpy, unless it was because the midnight black cat was just reacting to how his new owner was acting.

Severus sighed at that thought. It was a sight to behold when his temper flared and his annoyance levels went so high that he took points away from his Slytherins or marked them down badly. The first time he had taken points was from a Slytherin first year and the whole class had just stared at him until he threatened to take away more points.

Following that day no one had tried his temper, by not talking in class or being late, even from his own house, so it was easy to tell that word had gotten around fast. Not even the Gryffindors tried to object to the many points that had been taken or detentions handed out, realising that it would only get worse if they fought back.

He knew that if it were not for Mysteeri his classroom would have had a lot of explosions recently, since his mood set most of the students on edge.

It did not help that he was not getting enough sleep at night as he was helping the other teachers try and locate Potter (to no avail), which of course made him all the more irritable during the day. He knew that he should not take his anger and negative feelings out on the students, but it was not like he had anywhere else to put it. He certainly was not going to start shouting at his cat.

Though by now the students (at least from years second and up) should be used to it by now. Especially the Gryffindor seventh years, who Severus decided he put most of the anger on. Severus made himself believe that it was because they were the ones who had annoyed him the most in school, being the eldest Gryffindors.

Deep down he knew that it was actually because he thought that it was their fault the saviour had disappeared being the bullies that had probably tortured the younger black haired wizard, but he would never think or say that aloud. To anyone.

Tonight was another meeting before they would, no doubt, go out on search yet again, only to find nothing. The only thing he found himself being happy about was that it was not his job to search all of the hidden passage ways and secret places (as he did not know many of them), or that he did not have to search through the second floor where Moaning Myrtle's bathroom was.

It was also nice that no student would be stupid enough to try and have a secret rendezvous in the dungeons (where he did have to search), so he did not have to worry about that like Minerva and Filius often did.

As he prepared himself for the meting in his personal quarters, he watched Mysteeri curl up on his bed and he saw the green eyes that gazed at him as he pulled his cloak on. Severus still often wondered where the little cat had materialized from, and thought that he had come close to seeing the truth of his appearance, but lately his mind had been much more busy with more important matters. Matters dealing in one Harry Potter.

Severus vowed to himself that he would find out eventually where it was exactly that his new cat had come from, and to not make such a big deal about it when he did find out. If only he had known before the meeting...

Like always, Severus was the last one to make it into the Headmaster's office, sitting in the only open seat between Poppy and Sinistra. Thankfully he was not that much later than the second to last person to arrive, Minerva, who had to come all the way from the red and gold tower.

He was anxious for the meeting to finish so they could go out to try and find the boy, because despite how he thought that they would not find him like all of the other nights, he could not help a small form of hope springing in him whenever he was searching.

"Does anyone have any extra information on Harry or where we could possibly find him?" Albus asked, looking around the table at each of them. Severus noted that the twinkle in his eyes was gone, showing that he was indeed, very worried about the brat.

They all shook their heads sadly.

Bathsheda (1) spoke up, "It is as though he is just up and disappeared. He has not left a trail, and you say he is still here, that he has not been kidnapped, I mean. But we checked every where that a person could hide in and some where one could not, and have not seen no sign of him!"

Suddenly there was a gasp from Minerva as a dawning realization spread over her face. Every one turned to look at her as she explained, "I can not believe I have not remembered until now, when you mentioned places where a person could hide. Before he disappeared, Mr. Potter and I were working on trying to find his animagus form because he expressed interest in it. It is possible that he found out without me around and transformed into it, thus getting stuck in it and being unable to change back. He never thought anything through to see the consequences and would not have realised that he did not know how to transform back into a human if he some how was able to change in the first place. We have been looking every where for Harry Potter the human. I think we need to look for Harry Potter the animal."

"Would you know what animal her form was, Minerva? It would definitely help if we knew what animal we were looking for." Filius said from his seat on a stack of books placed on the seat of a chair.

Minerva shook her head slowly, "I am sad to say that I do not know what his form is."

Albus thought before a second before sharing his thoughts, "So there you go. We are going to start looking for a Harry Potter turned animal. Since we do not know what kind of animal to look for, we are just going to have to look for Harry's distinct features. Bright green eyes, a small size and black fur, feathers, scales, skin or hair. You all know where it is you need to look by now, so perhaps tonight we might finally find him." With that they all left to go and search.

Severus was thinking about all that had been said as he continued on his way down the familiar path to the dungeons. 'If Potter was turned into an animal,' he thought, 'then there would be no explanation for him. He would have just shown up where his human self would have been before.' A few minutes later arriving in the dungeons, it hit him.

'He would have just shown up...'

He could not help the feeling of dread that grew in his stomach as he walked straight towards his quarters, hoping beyond hope that he was wrong. But it all fit. Potter disappeared and Mysteeri appeared, both incidents apparently out of seemingly no where. Mysteeri had black fur and was a small cat, even by kitten standards, as well as bright green eyes. Not to mention that he seemed to understand every thing that was said, so well that he even helped with potions!

Severus started to create a list of human things that he had seen the cat do: the strange move he would seen him do to get away from Mrs. Norris, that the cat was wary of drinking milk for the first time as if he had not had it before, how he knew what every one around him was saying and how he knew which potions ingredients were which.

Opening the door to his rooms and then bedroom, Severus saw Mysteeri curled up on his bed, asleep. Most likely because of all of the noise, Mysteeri's head came up and the green eyes opened groggily. Staring into them, Severus damned himself for not realising sooner. Had he not compared the cat's eyes to that of Harry Potter already?

Thinking this, Severus thought of the night after that first meeting. The night he admitted he loved Harry bloody Potter, Gryffindor Golden Boy to the only thing he thought he could trust – his cat, Mysteeri. Who, thanks to his horrible luck, is turning out to be the very person he had admitted to loving.

Damn his luck.

"Get out." Severus said through clenched teeth, gesturing to the open doors. He knew it probably was not that smart to leave his quarters' door open, where anyone could walk in, but he was angry.  
Confusion filled the cat's sleepy Avada Kedavra eyes.

"I said get out, leave! You thought you could sneak in here and try to humiliate me? Get away with messing up my rooms?" Severus mentioned the time he came back to find his living room in a disaster. "Well think again! Get out Potter!"

At the mention of his last name understanding came upon his face, but fear and pain filled his eyes. The potions master could tell where the fear was coming from, but the pain? It did not matter, because of the emotions so easily displayed Severus knew that the cat was, indeed, Harry Potter.

When the cat / boy failed to move, Severus took three long fast strides toward the bed unsure of what he would do when he got there if the cat did not move, but was saved from thinking about it as he saw the cat spring into action. The black cat shook his head, jumped off the edge of the bed with slight hesitation, and gave a startled yelp as he hit the floor.

With out a look behind him the cat ran through the first door and living room. Severus shouted as he left, "Be back here by tomorrow after curfew, I will have the potion to change you back ready by then. If you are not here then I just will not give it to you." The cat did not pause at the words.

When Potter passed through he second door out into the hall, it closed behind him with a great slam. Severus sat down on the bed, as he realised that he had lost the only true friend he had ever had, even if he was a cat and really Harry Potter.

Chapter 15: Wanderer and Wonderer

~*~ No-One Harry-ish POV ~*~

Harry had not quite understood what had been going on when Severus had first come burst in and told him to leave, but he froze when Severus called him 'Potter'. Of course, the one night that the boy turned cat lets his guard down about anyone finding out about him being a cat, just has to be the night that they realise he was Mysteeri the cat.

What Severus said about hum hurt, but it was not like it was anything he had not expected to hear before. When the tall dark haired man started moving towards him Harry knew that he had to get out of there fast. At the edge of the bed he paused for only a second, he had yet to attempt jumping off the bed, but jumped soon afterwards anyway using all of his Gryffindor bravery.

Landing on the floor with a slight thump, Harry felt a sharp pain stab through his front left paw and toes, but ignored the feeling as he ran out of the rooms. He heard Severus tell him to be back in the dungeons, waiting outside of the door, after curfew the next day for a potion, and he heard the door behind him shut itself loudly.

Only now pausing to look behind him, the midnight kitten stared at the door with a kind of finality. It seemed to Harry that everything that had happened while he was Severus Snape's cat, the bonding over potions, the destroying the elder man's living room, blowing up Ron's potion and ruining Hermione's, helping other students with their potions, comforting Severus after meetings, all of it was gone.

In one night he had gone from being Mysteeri, the smart cat that seemed to understand and was good at helping with potions, to Potter, the boy who's father bullied the potions master and was his most hated student. He had ruined the first thing that had been able to make him happy since all of his 'friends' had turned on him. The one thing that made the idea of life as a cat tolerable.

Turning away from the door Harry wondered where he should go. Having no idea, and not really having anything in mind the cat just started walking down the corridor. He did not want to think about what would happen tomorrow if Severus came out of his rooms to find him just sitting there, waiting.

'No,' Harry thought to himself sadly, 'he is not Severus any more. I have to get back into the habit of calling him Snape. Merlin knows what would happen if I called the man 'Severus'. To anyone, that is, McGonagall or Dumbledore. I really do not want to think about what Severus would do if I called him Severus to his face.'

After walking for what seemed to be only a few minutes, but in reality could have been hours, Harry suddenly found himself in an old, abandoned part of Hogwarts that he had not been in before – or simply did not recognise from such a short point of view. He also found himself to be completely and utterly lost.

Though he was sure that had he been human he would have known where he was, or at least where to go, he did not as a cat. On Severus' shoulders he had been as tall as the other raven haired wizard, protected from anything on the ground; and everything on the ground seemed small and insignificant. Now he was one of the small insignificant things walking around on the ground. Now he was just a small kitten in a big, big scary world. Not to mention Slytherin territory.

As he wandered some more, Harry absently thought some more, and of a great range of things. He was not really all that panicked about not knowing where he was (other than that he was in Hogwarts, of course), as he would recognise his surroundings eventually, and staying in one place surely would not help him.

Instead, he found himself thinking of Mrs. Norris and hoping that the old territorial cat did not find him again. If she did happen to find him again, considering what had happened last time, Harry could not help the involuntary shudder that ran through him as he imagined what she could do to him.

It would even be slightly ironic, the boy who lived, who survived the Dark Lord Voldemort multiple times and even defeated him; killed by an old temperamental cat because he had been idiotic and became stuck in his animagus form.

Because this time there would be no Severus – no, Snape – to save him from such a dismal fate.

Time had little meaning to Harry as he padded along, the pain in his left foot not fading, though thankfully not growing worse. He wondered for a few moments if he would have a sprained wrist or some sort of fracture in his left hand when he turned back into a human. It was while following this train of thought that the cat looked up from his furry feet to see where they had subconsciously lead him.

The Great Hall!

Peeping his head just barely inside the door, Harry could see that the only ones inside were a few teachers that sat at the head table talking. They seemed some what normal (which meant slightly over stressed as of late), not happy or relieved, which made him wonder if anyone other than Severus – Snape – knew that he was a cat. Deciding he did not really want to find out, he popped his black furred head out of the doorway before any of them could see him.

'It is probably just before breakfast.' Harry thought, and the sound of many rushing feet coming towards him and the Great Hall reaching his ears alerted him that he was correct in his assumption. He had often wondered why all of the students often woke up at the same time and came into the Great Hall at the same time, even the ones in different houses. It just seemed very odd to Harry.

Not allowing his wonderings to distract him, he ducked into a small dark crevice in the wall, Harry watched as the students walked into the hall. He dared not leave his small niche in the wall, for fear of being trampled to death by dozens of students. Or letting a student see and recognise him as Professor Snape's' pet cat and trying to take him back to the Potions Master.

Wondering and wandering idly again, Harry berated himself for his stupidity. He finds out that Severus – Snape dammit! - loves him, and that he loves the man back, before going and ruining the whole thing! Granted, he had not exactly been planning on ruining the whole thing; there was not a lot that he could have done in the situation he had been given. But there must have been something!

It did not really matter now, it was in the past and he needed to work on formulating a plan for the future, one that involved him talking to Severus about why he had pretended to be the man's cat; instead of going to McGonagall who would have eventually understood (probably), or running away to the headmaster and trying to get him to understand.

Thinking back to how the whole thing started, Harry growled. How the hell was that potion meant to make his life better? Now when he changed back it was just going to be worse! He and Severus – oh, I give up! - had not been on good terms before, they just avoided each other really, but now the potions master would probably go out of his way to try and make Harry's life miserable!

As if it was not a horridly miserable and unpleasant life already! He did not need a potion to make his life worse, it was quite fine at the level of misery he had been resting in before, thank you very much.

For the rest of the day Harry just walked around on his four paws aimlessly, spotting many more niches in Hogwarts than he thought there had been before – maybe that whole idea of Hogwarts being sentient and knowing what those in her need had some truth to them after all, or perhaps he simply had not payed enough attention to the lower level of Hogwarts' floors enough.

It seemed to take forever, time going particularly slowly when ever Harry hid from the travelling masses of students on their way to and from breakfast, lunch, and dinner. It was happening most likely because the black cat's hunger pains were starting to rival the one he felt pulsing in his paw.

Harry had not had anything to eat all day; nothing actually since lunch the day before. And after getting used to sneaking food off of Severus' plate at the Head Table or being able to lap up warm milk and meat at Severus' dining table, it was not an easy pain to deal with, despite his meetings with it earlier in his life.

But the time did end up passing, and long after the halls all fell quiet with lack of students walking through them, the only sound to hear was Harry breathing, and it was still extremely quiet and hushed. The sleek midnight black cat found himself on his way down to the dungeons; following a path known to him after using it so many times over the years.

Sometimes, walking down this path he had the feeling that his doom was waiting for him, and some times he had just wished that whatever was going to happen while he was there would already be over. Never had he gone down with happiness or in a cheery mood. And never feeling as lonely as he did now.

Chapter 16: Finally Human Again

Harry found it hard to tell how much time had passed on his way into the dank dungeons, though he did not want to believe that it was very much. The boy turned cat carefully walked his way down to the potions master's door, trying to avoid putting too much weight on his injured left paw. It still hurt, though it was admittedly not half as bad as some of the other injuries he had gotten during the war.

The midnight black cat turned a corner to see the hallway that contained his destination. Harry decided not to fight his instinct as he could not help it. He ran (or walked quickly, if you cared for his opinion) towards the door in anticipation.

Halfway there, he slowed down to a normal walk. How would Severus react when he was turned human again? Badly, he was sure. Would he listen to Harry's story? Hopefully, but not likely. Would he just get thrown out as soon as he was human? Again, hopefully not, but this was the most likely thing that was going to happen.

Though he was now a little apprehensive of going inside, Harry padded up to the door and bumped the old, dark, wood a few times with his non injured paw. It was as close to a knock as he could come too, with out batting his head on the door, of course.

He waited and he was rewarded for his short wait, as the door swung open, seemingly on its own. To many other people it would seem a little creepy, or as if Severus only did it because he was too busy to come answer the door himself. Harry knew that that wasn't the case.

When the potions master didn't go to the door, there was of course a chance he was too busy, but more often than not it was because he was trying to stall a meeting with the person (or in Harry's case, animal) for as long as he could.

Walking cautiously through the doorway, Harry saw Severus coming in from the potions lab. He was turned around as he was shutting the door, and this made Harry realise that all the doors were shut.

What, did the elder man think that he was going to run around, get into everything, or hide somewhere in his rooms? Especially when it was so obvious that Severus didn't want him too? No, if Severus didn't want him around after he changed back into his human form, though not before he at least attempted to tell him about why he had done it, he would leave.

He had already caused the both of them enough pain.

The tall man turned around and looked down at Harry with a sneer, but the cat could see there was pain in those dark brown eyes he loved so much. Harry wished that he could just rub off that sneer and take that horrible pain away, but it would be so hard for him to do; not only as a cat but also because he was the cause of that pain.

It was his fault. That made Harry's heart hurt much more than the inevitable rejection he knew was going to come did.

Looking around once more, Harry saw that his cloak and wand were lying on the table, ready for him to take, most likely so he could turn around and never come back. Which as he said before, even if it cause him some of his own pain, he would do so. Not until Severus wanted him too anyway.

After silently transfiguring a knut or other coin of some sort into a small silver dish, the raven haired human man poured the potion into it. Harry watched on as the greenish sludge dripped into the dish, and was grateful when only an eighth of the vial was poured in rather that than the whole thing.

Harry wanted to ask Severus why he only had to take such a small amount, but knew that asking (when human, as he could not really do so as a cat) would only serve to hinder instead of help as he had more important things to say; and he couldn't expect Severus to give him a long amount of time to say them.

Thankfully, Severus decided to answer his unspoken question; though it was certainly veiled with a command.

"Drink all of it, or you will only partly change back. Lucky for you you don't have to drink too much of it with such a small size, Potter." Severus snarked down at him.

Harry ignored the heavy contempt dripping off the name Potter, and instead thought of what the man has said just before. So, he had to take so little of the potion because he was such a small animal. For another time he was yet again happy that he was such a small kitten, where he was once embarrassed and and slightly resentful of the fact.

Stepping forward, still with more weight on his right paw, Harry lapped up the disgusting liquid, trying very hard not to grimace. It tasted as if armpit sweat, dirty socks, and all the worse things you can imagine were placed into a muggle blender before they were all pulverised with some kind of green dye. In short, it tasted as appealing as it had looked.

The Saviour felt joy when his tongue scraped away the yucky goop he was being forced to intake and he saw silver, it meant that he was almost finished! There were a few more licks, and an inspection of the bowl to make sure there was nothing left, (Harry didn't like the idea of turning into a human with a tail or fur on his face), before Harry sat back on his haunches with his tail wrapped around his paws and licked his whiskers.

The midnight black cat saw Severus staring at him, so he just stared back, until Severus realised that they were both staring at each other. A smirk broke the contemplative look on the elder man's face, and, though the smirk marring his Severus' face seemed forced, Harry bowed his head.

It was obvious that when he became human Severus would now do one of two things: mock him for being the dreaded potions master's pet cat for a few days, or think that Harry betrayed him and try to cover up how hurt he felt with snarky comments. The Boy Who Lived To Defeat Voldemort found it hard decide which would be worse. Either way Harry knew that Severus was going to be all out mean to him. Even more so then he used to be.

And that was saying something.

Suddenly, there was a small bright light that glowed around Harry, and there was a strange feeling thudding through the cat. It some what resembled how he had felt after drinking the original potion, but it hurt more.

The pain was a small amount to begin with, and Harry let out a small whimper that sounded some where between a cat meow and a human 'ow'. As the pain gradually increased, it centred mostly around his injured paw, which Harry guessed was going to give him an injured hand or wrist after he turned back.

The pain continued as Harry's legs twisted and elongated, bending in awkward places, paws becoming feet and hands. He felt the ears on his head shrink and move to the side of head in a strange way with an unusual feeling, his eyes also turned from slits to normally wide holes.

His nose grew out and the whiskers fell off as the fur on Harry's body seemed to grow back wards, being sucked into him so that his skin was once again bare. On his back, his black tail seemed to go the same way as his fur by growing back into him. In truth it was just becoming smaller before the tail bone that Harry (and all humans) are born with became its normal size.

Once it was done, Harry felt a large amount of uncoordination, and he chalked it up to being a lot taller and on two feet. Looking down to inspect if he had any extra fur / hair on his body, or any extra appendages, he saw that he while he had none of that he was also without a shirt, and though it irked him that Severus could see his bare chest (it's not like Harry didn't want him to see it... just not in these conditions), he thanked whatever gods were up there that he still had on his pants.

The boy saviour grabbed his cloak, which now seemed not so high up or far away, and wrapped it around himself in an attempt to hide. The cloth of it felt strange against his skin which seemed so smooth now; having gotten used to having fur surrounding his body.

Harry picked up his wand and flipped it around in his fingers, just happy that he could do so (and that he was right handed). He glanced down at his left hand briefly, which was sticking out at an odd angle, but he was no medi-wizard, so that would just have to wait until he could go and see Madame Pomfrey.

Harry looked back up at Severus curiously, to see if the man looked at all different from a normal human perspective, if some how his cat eyes had made him look more appealing than human eyes would. But though he looked considerably less tall, he was still the same old Severus.

Well, not the same old Severus that Harry loved, not the one that looked after him these past few days; but the same old Severus Snape that made fun of him whenever he was in potions class.

He noticed that the potions master was looking at him to, with a kind of small sad look in his eye that disappeared as soon as he realised that Harry was looking at him.

"Potter. Now that you are back to your normal arrogant human self I am sure you can find the door." Severus sneered, loathing in his voice sounding fake to even Harry.

"But what if I don't want to find the door? Sev- Snape, look, I never meant to become a cat and -" Harry attempted to explain what had happened but no words would come to him before Severus cut him off.

"Yes, for once in your life you did something incredibly stupid and though it's not the first time, everyone can agree that at least this once you didn't mean to do it. But what is done is done, so now you can leave and go run and tell your friends about all of the embarrassing things you know about the Greasy Potions Professor."

Harry noticed a certain glint in the older man's eyes and it must have been something like pain, because that's what it caused Harry.

"Professor, when will you realise that I am not my father? It is impossible for me to say honestly that I know even he wouldn't do something to this extreme to you – you know him far better than I do – but I do know for a fact that I wouldn't. I would never do this to humiliate you! Or anyone for that matter!"

Harry was close to shouting, and it appeared Severus was too.

"Then why would you! Then why would you stay here at all! Why not just go to Minerva or Albus? Why stay here!"

Harry looked up into Severus' eyes and spoke softly, "I don't know. I didn't want to at first, and if you think about it, it is pretty easy to tell. But then you started being so nice to me, and you took care of me and we -"

"No." Severus cut him off again. "No. You are going to forget your time as Mysteeri and I am going to forget that for such a short amount of time I ever had a pet. You will leave and we will never ever speak of this again."

Harry was about to open his mouth, so Severus grabbed his arm – the right one, for he must have noticed his left hand was hurt – and pulled him to the door. Yanking open the door he shoved Harry out the entrance, and before he had time to say anything, or get over his shock of being so roughly handled, Severus repeated "Ever.". Then he was gone.

The door shut with a slam like it had the first time Harry was forced out of it.

Harry knew that he heard the sound of something breaking, and if anyone had been around to ask, the boy turned cat and now finally turned back human would have told them it was his heart.

Chapter 17: Another Breakfast

~*~ No-One Severus-ish POV ~*~

He really hadn't meant to shout at Harry and force him out of his private quarters, he actually was actually planning on trying to talk to Harry about what had happened; but every time he thought about what had happened and made himself try and see what was happening from Harry's – Potter's – point of view he just could not stop thinking about how, as a cat, he could have gone to Minerva or the Headmaster.

Instead of doing that, Harry stayed with him, finding out things about his personal life that would no doubt become the joke of Gryffindors for the rest of the year. And that was why he kept thinking of how much he hated Harry – Potter – as he got ready for sleep after he closed the door on Mysteeri – Potter!

However, as he got into bed and slipped under the multiple blankets needed to keep a bed in the dungeons at the beginning of January warm enough to sleep in, a small voice in the back of his head that he had definitely heard before (which worried him) told him that he would come to regret sending Harry away with out listening to him.

Severus rubbed a hand down his face as he woke up slowly. Yawning, the Potions Master woke up on the first Monday since Potter had left – or been forced to leave, depending on how you looked at it. Climbing out of bed and beginning to stretch, he wondered why he felt as though he did not get any sleep the night before, that is until he remembered that he had been up thinking about Harry – Potter – until he could not keep his eyes open any longer.

Then he remembered why he had stayed up all night thinking about Harry Potter, heavily wishing for a drink of whisky.

Because he had found out that his cat was Harry freakin' Potter! His first instinct, as he walked through his kitchen after getting dressed, was to go straight to his whiskey cabinet and drink himself away; to forget himself in strong alcohol. But it would be entirely irresponsible to drink so much near and around children; not to mention it was Monday and there was no feasible way he could get away with it.

Especially not with Minerva on staff.

So he walked briskly to the Great Hall and through the teachers' entrance. Severus felt strange and a little off balance, he wondered when exactly the weight of a little kitten on his shoulder had become a comfortable one to him. Or the way he could feel the aforementioned cat's tail flicking against the back of his neck as he walked and occasionally talked to the cat had become such a calming gesture.

Opening the door into the Great Hall he strided to his normal seat where Minerva was already sitting in the seat beside; Severus wondered about what Harry thought of the Teachers' Entrance before telling himself that he needed to stop thinking of the younger raven haired wizard.

Sliding into the seat next to Minerva, he heard her look up at him and started talking about some great thing that had happened the night before while she was doing her rounds. The ex death eater was not really concerned with what she was saying until he heard her say Harry's name – Potter's first name. Why did he keep thinking of him as Harry?

"- Yes, he came and found me the moment he realised we had all been searching for him. He sounded pretty guilty about being gone." she told him, not realising that her companion had only just started listening to what she was saying.

This was what Severus was worried was coming, Harry would tell everyone about what had happened to him, that he had been turned into a cat and had been taken in by Hogwarts' greasy potions master.

At least, that's what Severus thought he would tell everyone, he found himself proved wrong when Minerva continued her story, "He told me that he had been walking around the Forbidden Forest and he got lost when he was not paying attention. He only found his way out of it last night. He actually is quite the responsible young man Severus, nothing at all like his father."

She gazed at him sternly behind her glasses as she paused to take a sip of water. When she finished with her drink she finished her story off by saying, "You and I both know what James would have done, which is tell all of the students how he braved the forest on purpose and still attempt to keep it from the teachers for fear of getting in trouble."

"The only reason to be happy about this Minerva is that we are no longer required to look for the brat at night when we all need the sleep." Severus muttered as he reached for another plate to make one for Mysteeri when he once again realised that he no longer had a cat with him.

Minerva noticed this and decided to comment on it, knowing that she wouldn't be able to get him to talk much about their current subject, Harry Potter. If only she knew that both topics were about the same person, she might not have bothered.

"Where did your little intelligent cat Severus? I see he is not with you today."

Severus quickly made up an excuse for why Mysteeri – Potter – was not with him, "Mysteeri stayed up all night chasing mice and was very tired this morning. I let him stay in my quarters for some much needed sleep, I think he will remain there for the better part of the day."

Minerva looked at him sceptically, "Since when do you have mice in your quarters?"

Severus realised that maybe that was not such a good idea as he was not the type of a man to allow mice in his quarters, but Minerva did not need to know that and there was no way she could prove he was lying as he said, "Since I moved to the dungeons Minerva. Surely you don't believe even I can stop mice from making their way into any rooms that they want if I do not catch them first. And I have been preoccupied lately."

Minerva 'Humphed', but she let the subject drop.

Now that the woman sitting next to him had turned and started talking to the professor on the other side of her, Severus was free to gaze around the Great Hall as it started to fill out with students. Judging on how the Gryffindors weren't staring or laughing at him more than they usually did (when calling him a Greasy Git they laughed), so he had to assume that Harry – Dammit, Potter! His name is Potter! – hadn't told them all about what had happened to him.

That small voice in the back of his head had come back and was telling him that maybe Harry – he was just going to give up on that front – was going to do as he asked and just try and forget about what had happened and maybe he would just stick to the 'Forbidden Forest Story' and no one would be the wiser. Severus was afraid to hope.

He was a little fearful when he did not see Harry at breakfast, but he chalked it up to the fact that Harry had just been changed back to a human body a few hours ago; and probably needed time to regain his balance and ability to walk. After all, he had been a cat for a few weeks, an animal that had four legs and a tail to depend upon for its balance; not that he was human again he had to walk on two legs with no tail to keep himself upright.

Severus stayed for as long as he could in the Great Hall with out seeming unlike himself, waiting and hoping for Harry to arrive, before heading back to his Potions class room (disappointed – Harry hadn't shown up) to prepare for the class he had next.

The first year Gryffindor and Slytherins were a little shocked at not seeing the midnight black cat in the class room, as had become customary to the students. Severus had to take many points away for exploded cauldrons and ruined potions.

It happened in each of the classes that Severus held, so he knew that it was not a coincidence, and it was most likely due to the fact that Mysteeri was no longer there to help the students when they would almost mess up a potion by adding the wrong ingredient or too much of one; it was worse than it had been before, because the students were trying to prove that they did not depend on a baby cat to get good potions grades.

They were also stressed and fearful of failing and making a mess of their cauldron simply because the didn't want any house points to be taken from their house; nor did they want to have a detention. Not to mention that if the potion the person next to you was making exploded, you wouldn't be focusing too much on your own potion either, which just caused more explosions, and it ended up being a chain reaction.

For Severus it only got worse as he had the older students in class and nothing changed. It was easy to admit that the Slytherins and Ravenclaws were having less explosions than the other two houses, but they still had a fair number more than they had had before the introduction of his pet.

Severus was anxious most of the day because he was waiting to see how Harry was, however he was forced to wait until Harry had Potions in the evening just before Dinner, because the younger raven haired wizard was not at lunch either.

After Severus left for his class room early again from lunch, Poppy fire called him in his office to ask for a him to make a Bone-Correction Potion for her. He, as usual, did not ask why she needed it, just told her that he would add it to the list and have the potion ready by the end of the week.

He did wonder why she needed it though, since it was not a potion that was used often as it only set bones in the right place, like for sprained ankles or wrists, which was not common as many times when a student had one of those it would be broken or chipped as well; meaning that they would need the Bone-Healing Potion instead.

After a few more classes it was finally time for Severus to get to teach the Seventh years, and he was waiting impatiently for them to line up outside of the door so he could see if Harry was alright. It was possible that Harry had been hurt by a side effect of the potion not being made correctly, even though the Potions Master knew this thought was ridiculous because he was a great Potions Master, which is why he had the name.

Sighing, Severus prepared the class room for the next class that was going to begin lining up outside of his door in a not so short amount of time. He cleaned any of the still lingering messes on the floor or tables before rubbing his temples. All of the multiple explosions were doing horrors for his headache. And it could only get worse when the Seventh years started lining up.

Chapter 18: Another Potions Class

~*~ No-One Severus-ish POV ~*~

When it became time for the Seventh years to gather out side of his door Severus cast a spell on the door so he could see who was outside of it and what they were doing with out the children on the other side seeing in, and he watched as the students walked to the door, a notable difference in the way the different houses walked up. Slytherins doing so gracefully, Hufflepuffs treating it like any other class, Ravenclaws eager to learn, Gryffindors with reluctance.

The only group that made its way to the door that held students from more than one house was a small group of three. A Ravenclaw and two Gryffindors. Severus watched as Harry, who looked like he hadn't slept at all the night before and had a bandage wrapped around his left wrist, walked in between the Lovegood girl who was talking with a dreamy look on her face, and the Longbottom boy who was looking at the Potions class room door with a hatred that Severus did not think the shy boy could feel.

He wondered why the young Gryffindor was not walking with his other two friends, Granger and Weasley, which only made him remember the 'prank' the cat had pulled on the two. As much as he wanted to think about it more, Severus decided that it would be a better idea to think about it later as he had a class to start.

Shaking his head, he cancelled the spell on the door before walking back to his desk and flicking the door open magically, it would not do to have the students know that he watched them line up outside the door as one could learn interesting things from people's actions when they thought no one was looking.

He silently looked at each of the students as they filed in, equally as silent.

Waiting for them to all sit down and get out there things, Severus noted that Harry and Longbottom were sitting at the far edge of the 'Gryffindor Side' of the room, where they were almost sitting in the 'Ravenclaw Section' of the room. Pondering this, Severus began telling the students what they would be doing today.

He had thought about it, and given the time to change the schedule, he had decided that he would give them a pop quiz that every teacher had ready for the students in case some thing were to happen and they needed to keep the students busy with out having an actual lesson to teach.

It was especially good in potions because there were some times during the year that making potions in a practical way was not a smart idea; like today for example. Setting each of the packets of paper onto the desk, he smirked a little to himself as he heard a noise that only a student seeing a test could make.

Handing out the last one, Severus announced, "Today you will be taking the quiz I have already placed in front of you. Those who have studied will no doubt do well," he subtly looked at the Slytherins and Ravenclaws, "and those who have not shall not." He not so subtly glared at the Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs. Turning and striding back to his desk, Severus clearly stated, "Begin." and he sat as the sound of quills scratching against paper appeared in the room.

Two thirds of the way through the class, Granger and Weasley had decided that they were going to start picking on Harry. Or, rather, Granger had finished her test and Weasley just did not care about his. This made Severus want to sneer; the ginger probably wouldn't do very well on it even if he did try.

After ignoring what they were doing for a few minutes, Severus looked up to see that they were trying to send Harry letters with out it being obvious that it was them who was doing so. They were failing in the last part, it was blatantly obvious that it was them, but they were Gryffindors, so Severus did not know why he was so surprised.

Perhaps it was because Harry could be so sneaky and cunning when he wanted to. He really needed to stop thinking of and complimenting Harry, but he had already chosen to give up on it, so he did not berate himself for it.

Anyway, the letters that they were flying over to Harry were obviously having an effect on him, as he read the first one, frowned, then spelled each of the next letters to his bag; he did not, apparently, want to bother with them during the class. Severus did not bother himself with standing up; instead choosing to give take points from where he was sitting behind his desk.

"Granger, Weasley, put your heads down and work on your tests. Ten points from Gryffindor, each."

Out of the corner of his eye, Severus saw a hand fly up into the air and Severus did not need to look at it to know that it was Granger's; just as he did not need to ask to know what she was going to say.

"Granger, if you are finished with your test then you can just sit there with your head down."

Though he knew that most of the class had decided to stop working on their tests (though this group had few of the Ravenclaws and less of the Slytherins) and watch the scene before them, he ignored them instead of acknowledging them. Only a few minutes later, in silence, they had each turned back to their tests, or gotten out a book in Granger's case.

It was at this time that the Feared Potions Master looked up, and straight into emerald green eyes. He saw a hope in those eyes, the kind of hope that refused to die no matter how many times you doused it and no matter how much pain you feel. The moment Harry's brain recognised that they were staring at each other he blushed, while tilting his head down in a shameful way.

Severus wanted to find out why he was so shameful, and why he seemed to be filled with so much pain, and why he wouldn't show up for meals, and why Severus hadn't seen the story of ''The Cat-Who-Lived?' on the front page, and why he had come up with an extremely believable excuse for his absence, and why so many other things.

But he could not; and not just because it was the end of the class, and they were in public, and it was time for the students to go to dinner, but because Harry was so much younger than him and they had agreed (or Severus had told Harry in an extremely angry tone) to simply forget about what had happened.

Which is why Severus told himself to forget about his own questions.

"Pile your tests onto my desk, then leave." Severus commanded, with a voice that held no voice for argument – not that it seemed many of the students would argue with him.

Actually, he knew of one student that had never before feared to argue with him, in front of every one and alone, but that particular student was one of the ones packing all of their things up with blinding speed.

The so called, 'Greasy Git' watched Harry Potter pack all of his supplies into his bag with a speed that must have set a record, wincing each time his left hand was needed for use. As he made his way to the large desk in the front of the room that he had sat on for long days during the week as a cat, the boy who lived set his paper down as if it was on fire, before high tailing it out of the class room and presumably down the hallway to dinner.

While Harry practically ran out of the room, Longbottom and Lovegood (Harry's friends) hadn't rushed out as their friend had. Though not packing slowly, they did not rush or give any sign that they were missing one of their three.

They left while the majority of the others did, the others not including most Gryffindors except stragglers; most of the Lion house opted to leave as Harry did, though notably not as speedily as Harry had.

Harry's once upon a time friends, Granger and Weasley, had been one of the first to leave, with their little trio now consisting of Weasley, Granger, and Finnegan; who was apparently taking on Harry's role. Not that anyone could act as Harry, or succeed in copying him to a T. Harry was so uniquely Harry that there was not a thing, animal, or person in the world similar to him.

Waiting for the last of the students to leave, Severus mulled over his thoughts as he left and locked the door behind him. Maybe he did still care about Harry, despite how angry he had gotten. And maybe he still had feel-... The dark man's mind shuddered to a stop as he walked into the Great Hall and to his normal seat next to Minerva at the end.

Scanning the loud crowds for Harry, Severus was disappointed to see that Harry was not to be found. Which meant that Harry was indeed skipping meals and not sick as he could have been this morning, considering he had been to potions class. Remembering what he had been thinking about before, Severus set some food on his plate. He had told himself to forget about it, right?

~*~ After Dinner ~*~

Apparently Severus was terrible at forgetting things, because all he could think about – as he walked around the dungeons on rounds searching for rule breaking children – was how at one point in the last week and a little before, he had had a cat on his shoulder that was the colour of a moonless, starless midnight.

And this cat would have its head held high in the air, eyes wide and alert. And any time that cat heard some thing that his duller not as sensitive human ears could not, this cat would perk its ears and point them in the direction of the noise. Severus had wondered at the time how Mysteeri had known that he was looking for soon to be in trouble students and not a mouse or other small rodent.

Now he wondered why the cat-boy had helped him get other students in to trouble.

Back in his personal quarters and after his rounds, Severus attempted to use what little time he had left to make the potion for Poppy and stop himself thinking about that blasted boy so he would be able to go to sleep when he finally drifted into his longing and comfortable bed.

Alas, it did not work as Severus was only reminded of the little kitten that would get him ingredients for his potions as he made them, and he found himself thinking much more about a certain bespectacled boy than he should have (one with brilliant eyes and mess, untidy dark hair). Eventually he just banished the failed potion, to wherever banished things go, as he retired himself to doing it the next day. The Bone-Correction Potion was not used much anyway.

Going through his nightly activities, Severus could not stop pondering how the little cat would look at him as he changed and got dressed, but he understood the looks now. Harry probably had been thinking that seeing the Potions Master naked would be great prank / blackmail, but he was most likely also horrified to see his professor with out any clothing.

As he glided in-between the sheets and rest his head on the pillow, he knew that he already missed Harry, and it was only the first day! Tomorrow would more than likely be worse, and the day after that, and the day after that…

As he fell asleep Severus thought of Harry, but unlike the last time he had been in this bed (that morning), those thoughts held no ill will towards Harry – all of his anger had dissipated.

He was thinking of how to apologise to Harry.

Chapter 19: Talking To The Headmaster

~*~ No-One Severus-ish POV ~*~

Severus felt horrible. It wasn't often that The Greasy Potions Master would feel guilt (or so the students were led to believe); but right now he did. It was now the eighth of January, and it had been a week since he had had his first day without Mysteeri.

Even though he kept coming up with plans to apologise to Harry – writing him a note on his homework to come and meet him at a certain time so they could talk; a detention where they could talk; pulling him into an abandoned classroom while he was alone to talk (they really needed to talk) – he just couldn't. Or he wouldn't.

He was terrified that after everything, Harry would still hate him like he had before. Not that he hadn't been given reason to hate him, of course, Severus was always terrible to him. The other raven haired wizard had even wanted and tried to talk to him after he had been turned back in to a human!

But Severus being Severus, and having that foolish pride and image of Potter Sr. in his mind when he thought of Harry, had turned him away and forced him out before anything could be said. He was regretting that.

But each time he thought about getting Harry alone to talk to him, or when he thought up a new plan to do so, he always talked himself out of it, always thinking that it would be better if he just waited a few more days.

Although, as far as he could tell that wasn't anything but a bad idea; Harry would come in to Potions each day with larger and larger dark circles around his eyes, slumping a little more over his cauldron (the cauldrons had been brought back into the class because there was only so many pop quizzes to be used). Clearly something needed to be said.

But Severus still couldn't do it. It wasn't in Slytherin nature to confront things anyway, not unless you knew a lot about the problem. Slytherins most often pointed fingers at others before causing some chaos and slipping away. He couldn't run away from this problem but he couldn't confront it either – he knew nothing of Harry. Harry was an unknown and so was everything associated with him.

This frustrated Severus.

He felt even worse when he took the Bone-Correcting Potion to Poppy on Friday which was just the day before. Somehow he had successfully scrounged up enough focus to work on the potion and finish it without too much danger of exploding it.

While walking to the Infirmary Severus was thinking again about who possibly would have needed the potion (which was a clever way of trying to keep his mind off Harry, of whom he was thinking of far too much of late).

When he arrived at the Hospital Wing he was glad to note that the place was empty other than the devoted Mediwitch. He really did not want students seeing him doing something border line nice for someone. Poppy was happy to see him and quickly took the vials from him, turning to put them in the cupboard that she stored all of the potions in, sorted by use.

The ones that were needed the most were nearer the middle and bottom while the less needed was found at the top. This particular potion was placed near the top and Poppy slipped the vials into slotted holding containers easily and routinely.

As she did this she babbled about the use of the potion and how she was surprised to start running out. Severus, as usual, wasn't listening all that intently until she mentioned something (one) he found interesting. Harry.

"It's great that he wasn't hurt too badly, right Severus? I know you don't really like him all that much, but he's not his father, much more responsible." she talked on and on, not even realising that the man behind her had only just started listening. "Yup, only a twisted wrist and some slight malnourishment. Which was too be expected I suppose, he couldn't have been getting a full plate out in the forest (1). I was a little surprised that he wasn't hurt more than that the poor thing! He reminds me of another student that had gotten lost in the forest-"

She stopped talking about Harry so Severus stopped listening and thought about what he heard. Harry was sticking to the Forbidden Forest Story, which was good for him, but he did not notice that Harry had been hurt that badly – if at all. And the malnutrition was to be expected. He wasn't really feeding his cat all of the things a human needs, was he?

Anyway, he was snapped out of his thoughts as Poppy was looking at him expectantly and he guessed she asked him a question.

"Could you repeat that?" he said in a curt voice.

Poppy smiled, "I asked you what was bothering you. You seem more distracted than usual."

Severus sighed, "I have a lot of things happening right now Poppy."

Her eye brows rose, "You must not be doing okay. That was almost nice – and after I asked a question about what you were thinking and tried to get some information on you and your personal life? My, what a day. I should mark this on my calendar." She laughed for a few seconds. "You know Severus you should be like this more often."

"Like what?" he asked, some what childishly.

"Just more open. Less closed off from everyone else. Be careful, or people might start thinking your in love!" she laughed again before shooing him out of the infirmary so she could go back to her office.

Severus had left without complaint. It was love, wasn't it? He had told Harry (while he was still a cat of course), that he thought he may be in love but not that he was. He wondered about it for a while and decided that yes, he was in love with Harry. He had to be. It certainly wasn't just an obsession.

Severus was thinking about what had happened the day before when a house elf appeared in front of him, holding something it its left hand. As the day was Saturday they were not any classes to be monitored, which was a blessing with all of the explosions that had been happening lately; and yes, the students were still acting extremely tense in class. Though it was getting better.

He sneered at the creature, "What?"

The elf blinked owlishly at him before handing him a rolled up piece of parchment and popping out of there. Severus knew that the letter (as it most likely was one) had to be from a teacher, but if it was a teacher then why did not they just use the floo? Determined to answer his own question, he opened the parchment up and read the note.

Dear Severus,

You have become all the more distant, of late, my boy. Is everything alright? I believe you should come up to my office around three so hat we can talk Severus. You look like you could use one.

~ Albus

PS. I am really enjoying red vines today.

Severus rolled his eyes at the Headmaster's barely concealed summons. Albus just wanted to talk to him – though he could understand why. He had been almost nice to Poppy yesterday, and that did not happen often.

As for why he hadn't flooed, well, where Albus was involved he tried no to figure it out, but instead just go with it. Even when he fought against something Albus would do, he knew that it wouldn't work in the end.

Glancing at the clock, Severus saw that it was two thirty. He had half an hour before his meeting with the headmaster. That wasn't enough time to make a potion, hm, what to do? His eyes roamed around his room for something to do and settled on a stack of papers that needed grading.

Pop quizzes were great for when they couldn't do practicals in class, but it always left him with a ton of his own form of homework; he sighed and prepared himself for half an hour of grading paper.

~ Half An Hour Later ~

Half an hour later found Severus abandoning the papers that were still on the table (he had only gotten through about a third of them) to walk to the Headmaster's office.

At the Gargoyle he said, "Red Vines."

He guessed that it was another muggle sweet that Albus had taken a liking to. For such an old man, he was obsessed with candy and sweets more than a two year old. He waited a little impatiently as the stairs took him up, and he walked quickly to the door that would lead into the office.

He knocked before opening it though. He knew what could happen if he did not knock, Minerva had done it once before and was apparently scarred for life. Severus did not know if this was realistic or and exaggeration, but he did not want to chance it – anything to do with the current Headmaster was possible.

"Enter." he heard from the other side of the door.

As he pushed it open to reveal himself to the room the voice continued, "Ah Severus, my boy! I see you received my letter."

"Of course I did Headmaster." he replied curtly, not sitting. "You wished to speak with me?"

Albus smile and looked at him over half moon glasses, "Severus, must you make everything sound so formal? Please sit, sit! Would you like a red vine?" The twinkly blue eyed wizard gestured to a chair while he held out a box of something that was a long piece of red candy.

"No thank you." he politely declined, sitting only to make the Headmaster happy and hopefully to get out sooner.

Albus looked at him with a small smile as if studying him, and Severus thought it was more than a little uncomfortable. Merlin, he felt like a student again!

"It is your birthday tomorrow Severus," was the long awaited information to why he was there. But from the look in Albus' eyes that wasn't the reason, it was just a light topic to talk about before getting to the 'Big Emotional Talk'.

Severus despised those talks. "Yes." he replied simply.

Albus continued to study him, "Do you have any special plans for tomorrow?"

Severus glared at the headmaster, "Albus, we both know that I don't. I never do have plans for my birthday. And we both also know that my date of birth is not the reason that you called me up here, so could you please get to the actual reason? I have papers to grade."

"Ah yes, your pop quizzes. I have heard many students complaining about them. You gave them out because they were not doing well in the practicals?" Albus prodded with his question.

Severus fidgeted but did not answer. This conversation as getting to close to Mysteeri for comfort.

"And they were not doing well because previously they had been getting help from a cat, I hear. Minerva tells me his name was Mysteeri, and that he was your pet?"

"Yes."

"Where has he gone off to then Severus?"

The Potions Master looked the Headmaster in the eyes and he had a feeling that Albus knew why (as he almost always did), and was really just humouring him.

"Because my cat wasn't a cat Albus." he muttered after some time.

"Oh?" Albus said, with fake surprise, "Then what was he?"

Severus knew what he was doing. He was trying to get Severus to admit to something that he already knew. Just like when he once made Severus admit that it wouldn't be hard to create a Wolfsbane potion once a month to help Lupin during his transformation while he was teaching at Hogwarts. He also knew that it really would go quicker if he just came out and told the headmaster what he wanted to hear.

"My cat was Potter. He made up the story about the Forbidden Forest for some unknown reason. When I heard about it I did not contradict it because I was angry at Potter for tricking me as he had."

Albus smiled at him from the other side of the desk, "Was that so hard Severus? I understand why you were angry then, but why are you acting so strangely now? Harry might not have found a way to tell you, but he hasn't done anything to hurt you, has he? He hasn't told anyone, hasn't made fun of you or threatened you with anything that happened, has he?"

"No," came the muttered answer.

"Then why are you still like this Severus?" Albus looked at him full of concern, and though Severus could see that while he was genuinely concerned, he already knew the answers for which he was asking.

"Because I... I think that I may l- love him." he stuttered around the word love as he spoke one of his deepest secrets out loud.

"Ah yes, I believe you do Severus. Why s this such a bad thing though?"

"I told him as much is why!" Severus snarled. "While he was a cat I told him about my feelings!"

Albus pursed his lips as Severus continued, "I told him. And then when he was changed back into a human after I gave him the potion I forced him out even though he tried to talk to me about it. And now I can't find the stupid Gryffindor courage needed to talk to him about it."

Severus sighed as he slumped forward in his chair, his hair covering his face.

Albus' voice was soft and kind when he heard the next moment, "Severus, I know it was hard for you to say that but I think that you will feel better now that it has been said. You fear that Harry hates you now or dislikes you anyway, and you're afraid to tell him. Many people are like this when faced with who they love. But it is like they say, if you love something, let it go. If it loves you, it will come back. Cats are well known to always find their way back home. And cheer up! Tomorrow is your birthday Severus, and birthdays tend to be lucky."

Severus glared at the headmaster as he was dismissed. That was it? That was all that he got? Some advice about searching for love and birthdays? That wasn't at all helpful. But then again, that was the headmaster.

He was thinking over what they had talked about, and yes, Harry drifted through his thought as well, when he ran into something. Or, more precisely, someone, as the person he bumped into dropped a stack of books that they were carrying.

A reflex, taught to him by the Marauders when he went to school at Hogwarts, had him magically pick up an re stack the books into his own hands as he heard them fall to the ground. He had this reflex because the marauders were always casting spells at him to knock him over or to make him drop his books and spill everything that he was holding to the ground.

As the last book quickly piled itself on top of the others, Severus held them out for whoever he knocked into, having not looked at the person yet.

He heard a muttered, "Thank you professor." as he scanned the person in front of him. He had run into Harry Potter. There was his luck acting up again.

As the teen blushed with his head bowed, he hurried past Severus to wherever it was he was in such a hurry to get to. Severus couldn't help but think of how cute the boy was when he blushed as he turned and started to walk back to his quarters.

It wasn't until he opened the door to his quarters with a quiet, "Lion heart," that he realised just how screwed he was.

Harry was only eating milk and cat food. Cat food doesn't include as many grains, veggies, or fruit as a normal human should eat, so he was slightly lacking in those foods. It did not show when he was a cat though, because as a cat that was all that his body needed.

Chapter 20: Happy Birthday

~*~ No-One Severus-ish POV ~*~

Severus Snape woke up on his birthday having no idea that it would be the best birthday of his entire life to date. When he did get up in the morning, he actually was not thinking about how great of a birthday it was going to be; instead he was thanking Merlin that it was a Sunday and that he didn't have to teach classes.

It only hit him as he was walking to breakfast that it was the day of his birth. His scowl deepened as he thought of the fuss that was likely going to be made by the other staff members. He had never been a big fan of birthdays; all it signified was that he was getting older and the day that he was born – which to most people, was not that significant. Yet people still fussed over him, which he disliked greatly (this was also, coincidently, the same reason Severus disliked Molly Weasley. She was too fussy).

Opening the door to the Great Hall he thought of the best birthday he had had, which was when he was a young boy at the age of seven and before his mother died from muggle cancer and his father went crazy. It was not really a spectacular birthday in that he received a load of presents or a particular one that he loved, it was just the best one that he had had.

All of his other birthdays that he remembered were after his dad went crazy and his mother died or after he had taken the Dark Mark and served under Voldemort.

Briefly, before he sat down at the Staff table that is, he wondered what Harry's favourite birthday was, and why; or what his favourite present was that he had ever gotten. Or what he would want for his next one.

His train of thought was broken by Minerva speaking (he seemed to be getting lost in his thoughts far too often now a days.)

"Happy Birthday Severus."

Severus grimaced as a few of the closer students that had already settled down to eat in the hall stared at them. "Minerva keep it down, hopefully the other teachers have forgotten. Though, now that I think about it, Albus has probably already reminded them."

Minerva looked at him with exasperation written clearly all over her face, "Oh Severus. I don't understand why you hate birthdays so much. I can see why you dislike the attention, but it's only for one day of the year."

The raven haired wizard glared at her as he made a plate of food, "One day of the year is not terrible, that is true. However, you say that about birthdays, Yule, Halloween, and every other holiday that you attempt to get me to participate in. That is not just one day of the year, that is multiple days of the year, every year. You know how I hate fusses and parties – especially ones over or for me."

He stopped talking so he could instead start eating his food, which was probably beginning to grow a little cold on his plate.

The Transfiguration Professor chuckled a little darkly, "Well, no worries Severus. I believe you shall have to put up with a few Happy Birthdays and presents, if you stick around out side of your quarters which you most likely will not, but no party. I don't think we have all quite recovered from last year."

Severus chuckled with her. The year before the others had apparently decided that they had had enough of him moping around all the time on his birthday. It was a Saturday and he had been planning on retiring to his Lab to brew potions for the entire day (in true Severus style).

Filius told him that he wanted some help with some thing (Severus didn't think it was important enough to remember what with) in the Staff Room, so the Potions Master answered the plea for help.

In the Staff room he found that his colleagues were actually all waiting for him with a cake, presents, silver and green streamers, and smiles that he was quick to wipe off of their faces.

Severus, being Severus, scowled largely at them and gave them all his worst patented Glare Of Death. After leaving the room in a state of silence no one wanted to break, Severus made a promise to himself that he would make all of their lives hard for the next few days, because he hated being fussed over.

And he did. They all learned to never do that again, and while the Potions Master was confident that they wouldn't try to throw another party they could still try and give him presents (which he hated), or cake (which he hated), or think that they could talk to him because it was his birthday (which he hated – both the talking and the birthday).

His plan was to leave the Great Hall as soon as possible after breakfast and to hole up in personal quarters until the day was over and he could come out the next day with little fear of anyone attempting to give him presents.

"I opted to not get you any thing this year." Minerva told him from his left.

"Smart woman," Severus muttered.

"But I do wonder, if you could have any thing that you wanted, what would it be?"

Severus chose this time to look up and gaze around the Great Hall that was full of students. He hadn't done so until just now, when it had pretty much reached its max capacity of students. His obsidian eyes searched the Gryffindor and Ravenclaw tables for a student with untidy black hair as he answered the woman sitting next to him.

There was a tone of dejection in his voice from not finding that head of hair.

"Does it really matter Minerva? I do not believe that it is ideal to dwell on things that we can never have."

Minerva looked at him with some thing akin to pity, "Severus there comes a time when we have the chance to get every thing and any thing we want, you still have that chance."

Severus shook his head as he pushed his chair out from the table, "But that's just it. I don't Minerva. My chance came and I was so close to getting what I wanted, extremely close, until my temper and rash decision pushed it away – far, far away from where I could ever reach it."

The dark man stood up from the table as he pondered, once again, over his mistake with Harry as he walked to his personal quarters. If he could re-do it, he would. Too bad Time-Turners were closely guarded by the Ministry.

He arrived at his door as he quietly said, "Lion heart," and walked inside.

~*~ No-One Harry-ish POV ~*~

Harry was scared. Screw that, he was terrified. He hated small spaces, so why oh why did he keep getting (in this case, putting) himself in these situations? The box was relatively small and there were air holes poked into it behind green ribbons so that he could breathe.

Since the box was darkish and brown coloured (on the inside) and the ribbons were green, it meant that where the holes were there was also a green strip of cloth covering it. It added some colour to his predicament, at least.

Harry was focusing on not hyperventilating as he surveyed what was happening to him. He had, admittedly, not only gotten himself I this position, but had also planned ahead for it. So why was he still scared?

Well, it could also be chalked up not only to his claustrophobia but also to his fear of rejection. He was doing some thing that he hoped would work, even if it was terribly cliché, and he hoped wouldn't get him throw out of one of his favourite places to be on his ass.

And no, while he thought about his favourite place to be he did not mean the box.

He would love to get out of the box that was currently acting as his Hell on Earth. But not having thumbs can ail an attempt to do so. Not that it would matter if he was in the box and he had thumbs (which was a strange picture in his head); because this was for Severus and he would do any thing for the dark haired man.

Even face his greatest fear – which he had thought was losing people that he loved and cared deeply for, but sitting in a small box with small air holes was definitely making him think about that.

Trying to focus on any thing other than his predicament, Harry started thinking about the day before. He had been walking with his head down, re-reading a letter from the Headmaster as he made his way to the Headmaster's office to talk to aforementioned Headmaster when he ran into the man that he had been thinking about greatly for the past few days.

Of course, unexpectedly knocking into some one is liable to make any one drop what they are holding, which is why Harry was not able to hold on to all of his books. every thing went flying everywhere and Severus seemed to automatically summon every thing into a stack in his hands.

Harry, still with his head down and not daring to look at the professor in the eye blushed a bright Gryffindor red, thanked the man and took the books before rushing off to the Gargoyle that guarded where he was going.

It was all extremely embarrassing for Harry, and when he talked to the Headmaster it seemed so coincidental as that was there topic: Severus. The Headmaster told him that it was Severus' birthday the day next, and Harry had already been thinking about what he could do when the man with his twinkling blue eyes suggested Harry get him a present.

The short raven haired wizard thanked the older man and left the office with a great idea. And it was that idea that landed him where he was now.

Harry heard a click like a door knob being turned and a door opening as soft footsteps sounded in the room. Harry sat up straighter and nervously licked a messy piece of fur on his side down as he anxiously awaited the lid of the box to be taken off.

~*~ No-One Severus-ish POV ~*~

Striding past the door that swung shut on its own, Severus walked straight to his brandy cupboard, that sat above the counter next to the sink in the kitchen. He could not get drunk or wasted, he was still on a premises with many children around and would need to be some what on hand should a need for him arise, however a cup or two could not hurt.

And it was his birthday. Even if he did not enjoy people making a fuss over it he did believe that it was his right to set down his wand and just lay back and relax some times. This was one of those times.

He poured himself a glass of the Firewhisky from the cupboard and picked up a book on potions that he had admittedly already read multiple times but enjoyed immensely.

For an unknown reason he started to have a growing feeling of anticipation as he carried his book and drink into his living room, where the fire had been already stoked by the house elves and where his favourite leather chair sat waiting for him to arrive.

However, what he did not expect, was the small silver box that had a green ribbon wrapped around it and tied in a delicate bow at the top to be set on his chair. Who had put it there? It could not have been one of his colleagues, he would have known if one of them had tried to get into his private quarters.

There was only one person that he had set his wards to, which was Harry – even though, technically, they had been set to Mysteeri, not Harry.

Severus visibly shook his head as he placed both his drink and his book on to the table in front of the fire. The dark haired man plucked a note off the top of the box. Harry didn't hate him so much that he would send a prank or some thing humiliating, would he? Harry was far too nice for that, was not he?

He after all hadn't told anyone about his time as the Potion Master's cat, some thing Severus was still wondering about. Though that could be interpreted as embarrassing for Harry as well, in which case he wouldn't have told anyone –

What was he thinking? Harry was definitely too nice for that. He was not his father.

Even so, his hands shook slightly as he took the pristine white paper with his name Severus ~ in a some what messy scrawl over the top that he recognised from years of homework assignments.

Unfolding the letter, it read:

Severus ~  
To the bravest and most intelligent man I have ever known,

and the only man that I have ever fallen in love with,  
Happy Birthday.  
~ Harry Potter Aka Mysteeri  
(Please don't handle the box roughly or wait too long to open it)

The shaking of his hands was much more intense and prominent now, as Severus refused to allow himself to think over what the letter meant.

Carefully he moved forward until he was standing over the silver box, and he pulled the green ribbon in a way that made it completely go limp and simply fall off. Severus wondered what on Earth Harry could have gotten him that demanded to be opened immediately after he found the present, and he realised as soon as he gently lifted the lid of the box off.

Inside was a little baby midnight black kitten sitting in the middle of the box with its tail wrapped around its feet. The kittens eyes were large, and Severus watched with a kind of fascination as the eyes squinted and dilated before becoming large again.

He slowly and cautiously picked the kitten up by wrapping a hand underneath it. There was another green bow wrapped around the black kittens neck, as if it were a collar of some sort. Severus undid this ribbon before placing the kitten on the ground.

Once the dark man had straightened up the kitten started changing, and he started to get bigger until, standing in front of Severus, was a fully clothed Harry Potter.

As soon as he was changed back the very-apparently anxious-looking Harry started talking extremely fast and Severus could only listen as the younger man appeared to not breathe as he talked.

"Look, I'm sorry about just coming here in such a corny fashion and every thing, but I think we really needed to talk and I am sure you noticed, and I was trying to not bother you and leave you alone like you asked me to but it was really hard for me to do because I really wanted to see you, and I was not getting any sleep at night because I was thinking about you, and I knew that I needed to apologise and I am really sorry about hurting your feeling like that but I swear that I never meant to do it intentionally and I shall admit that -"

Harry was cut off.

Severus, understanding what the handsome young man in front of him was talking about, and noticing that he was going into hysterics, knew that he should probably make Harry stop talking so that it could all be explained calmly and so Harry didn't actually go into full blown hysterics.

And the only way Severus could think of at the moment to get him to stop talking was to kiss him. So that's what he did.

It started out as a kiss to simply make Harry shut up, but it quickly escalated. Harry blinked in surprise about what was happening before those Avada Kedavra green eyes that Severus had fallen in love with slipped shut. Before the kiss could get too heated, Severus pulled away.

Harry had a pout on his face when the taller raven haired man looked at him next, and Severus was sorely tempted to kiss that adorable pout off the only person able to make Severus Snape think the word 'adorable'.

Severus sighed because he knew that just kissing Harry wouldn't be enough. Harry seemed to have caught his bearings again, as he began talking again, though (thankfully) at a much more normal speed, "Severus I am sorry."

Severus stared at him, "What are you sorry for? You weren't the one to yell, the one who didn't think rationally at all, the one who lost their temper, were you?"

"But I didn't tell you! And I did destroy your living room!" Harry half shouted at Severus, trying to get him to understand. "I faked being a cat, I botched students potions in class!"

The younger man stared up at him from where he was, with their chests almost touching as he whispered, "I caused you pain."

Severus shook his head at the boy who was so wrong and looked so sad.

"You did not Harry. You have no reason to feel sorrow or guilt – except perhaps for trashing my living room, in which case I will accept your apology. The rest of that you didn't do on purpose; there was no way for you to tell me you were a cat. There was no way you could have not faked being a cat because you were one. And you only botched Granger and Weasley's potion which I made them clean up, every one else had been doing far better with you in class. Surely you understand that the recent increase in pop quizzes handed out has been because all of my students had come to depend upon a small black cat that was often sitting on my desk when they first arrived to class?" Harry smiled at that.

Severus continued, "And Harry you did not cause me pain. I caused me pain by pushing you away." Severus wrapped his arms around the shorter wizard as he said the last part.

"However, now that you are here, you must understand, I will never let you go again. Ever. You shall be mine forever. Is that okay with you?"

Harry smiled up at the man who was smiling down at him. "You know what? I think that I am perfectly fine with that. And happy birthday."

Severus' grin grew wider, "I must say, this has been the best birthday I have ever had. Even though I only received one present. Do you think next year could be even better?"

It was a some what rhetorical question, but Harry answered it anyway, "Who knows? It's a mystery."

"Ah, a mystery." Severus said softly so that only Harry could hear – not that was anyone else around to hear it. "Just like my love, and my familiar, a kitten named Mysteeri. I always knew he would turn out to be a mysterious cat."

Harry and Severus shared small, soft smiles, as they began to ravish each others mouth's once again.

And in a room that was in the very same castle as the one the couple was in, a man with the brightest twinkling blue eyes, smiled.

And that, my good friends, is the end.


End file.
